Techie
by Kasamyra
Summary: When someone from Shawn's traveling days shows up in Santa Barbara unexpectedly after five years of no contact, Shawn's life gets thrown upside down. Shawn has never hated anyone as throughly as he hated her, but he had also never trusted anyone as much, besides maybe Gus. Now that she's back, there's danger around every corner. She always did have to ruin his happiness.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: May 12th 2010

Of the many officers and detectives that constantly moved in and out of the station, Juliet was the first one to approach the woman. She knew she wasn't the first to notice her because she had heard mutterings from some of the males, wondering over who she was or what she was there for, but none of them had wanted to approach her. Juliet supposed she understood. From an objective point of view, the woman was beautiful, to the point that Juliet felt a small swell of jealousy. Her hair was a light, almost reddish brown color, and it curled softly down her back and away from her face. Her eyes were a bright hazel green that was visible even across the room, and her features were all perfectly centered on her face, her lips full and red, her nose small and perfect, her eyes wide and gentle. Her clothes were dark and clinging, black skinny jeans revealing long, slim legs, and a dark blue short sleeved blouse, showing off her flat stomach, lean arms, and shapely neck, and it was just low enough to emphasize that she had nicely sized breasts. Juliet thought that the outfit must have been carefully picked in order to accentuate the woman best futures.

She sat on the waiting bench perfectly poised, one ankle tucked behind the other, her hands resting on her lap, neck and back straight. Despite all of this, Juliet noticed that the woman had an air around her, she seemed almost… well not dangerous, but there was something there that Juliet couldn't identify, probably the same something that had kept her male coworkers from approaching, no matter how good looking the woman was. Her eyes, which had, up until this point, followed every person who came in the front doors, now focused on the approaching blonde haired woman. Juliet noticed, with a bit of surprise, that the woman looked her over for weapons or a threatening attitude, almost in the same way she had seen Shawn's do to potential suspects, or Henry's do to people when he thought he was in a dangerous situation.

"Hi," Juliet said, coming to a stop a few feet away from the woman. This positioning was purposeful, even though Juliet could tell the other woman wasn't armed. Not with a gun at least. At this distance, Juliet had put both her and the woman in plain view of the rest of the bull pen, and she would have enough space to draw and aim her weapon if the woman was dumb enough to try an attack in the middle of the station.

The woman, as though reading her thoughts, gave her an understanding smile that made Juliet immediately relax, though she didn't notice it.

"Hello," she replied, her voice sooting, which relaxed the blonde woman even further.

"I'm detective O'Hara," Juliet said, her body shifting a little closer so they were in easy speaking range now. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Oh, no, thank you," the woman said, giving her another smile. "I'm just waiting for someone."

"Oh, would you like me to call them for you?" Juliet asked. This woman must have been called in as a witness to a case or something, though Juliet couldn't think of which one she would fit into.

"No, thats unnecessary," the woman said, and Juliet found herself smiling back at the woman this time. "He'll be here."

"Alright, if you're sure," Juliet said, turning back to the interior of the building. The woman didn't respond, but Juliet left the conversation smiling, though she couldn't say why.

The woman sat on the bench for hours, not shifting or leaving. Her eyes continued to analyze every person that came through the door, whether they were officers or criminals. She didn't speak to anyone, though more than one man brought in for questioning leered at her. She didn't even seem to pay attention to her surroundings, past the people coming and going. In fact, Juliet would have sworn multiple times that the woman had completely zoned out, her eyes taking on a far away, blank look, but she never missed a single person coming in the door.

She was still there when they received the call about a dead body found on a secluded part of the beach by some late morning joggers. Juliet gathered her jacket and the things she would need at the scene while her partner swore at the location. They both knew that, being much closer to the crime scene, Shawn and Gus would beat them there, though neither of them had been called. Lassiter seemed to find the idea abhorrent, but Juliet, though she would never admit it, still found Shawn fascinating, though she had been around to observe him for over five years now. Half the time, she was positive that he must be truly psychic, but then sometimes he would do something so… detective like that she had to wonder, briefly, if maybe he was just really good at seeing clues. She never let on about her doubt though, and she liked to play it up a bit when Lassiter was particularly crotchety that day, just because she thought the older man needed to loosen up a little. And it was fun to see him annoyed once in a while.

It wasn't until they were leaving, and Juliet had taken a single glance back at the still stationary woman, that she noticed the manila envelope, wedged between the woman's back, and the back of the bench. She only had a few minutes to ponder what it could be before her mind was occupied by the crime scene.

Nearly two hours later, they returned to the station, followed by Shawn and Gus, who had indeed beaten them to the crime scene. They had the statements of the two joggers who had found the dead man. He had been buried in sand and seaweeds, and they had only noticed him because they had stopped to shell hunt (Juliet had nearly shaken her head at them and Lassiter had barely contained a derisive snort. Who actually went shell hunting? Other than five year old children) and they had seen a foot sticking out of the mess of plants. The sea water had washed away any evidence that might have been left, but for some reason, the killer hadn't bothered to search the victim's clothes, and his wallet had survived, for the most part, which meant they had been able to get an ID on him. The mistake probably meant that the killer hadn't meant to kill the victim, but after discovering the death, had panicked and dumped the body in the ocean. The man had small cuts all up and down his arms and face though, which had stumped Juliet. They almost looked like fingernail scratches, but they might have happened after the body was dumped. The obvious cause of death was a blow to the head. Juliet was so deep in thought, puzzling over what might have happened, that she had forgotten to look for the mystery woman as they entered the station. She looked now, and almost sighed in confusion. The woman looked as though she hadn't moved at all, but, Juliet noticed, her eyes had stopped searching over every person that came in the doors and was now fixed on their little group. Though Psych hadn't yet been hired for the case, Shawn and Gus had stuck around, partially to annoy Lassiter, and partially because they hoped that when Lassiter couldn't figure it out, the chief would hire them. It was a usual occurrence, but now Juliet felt a bit uneasy. The woman was watching them all, though she probably couldn't see them very well from where she was sitting.

"What's wrong Jules?" Shawn asked, noticing the blonde tense up a bit. "Thinking about hiring us for the case? I know you want to."

"That's not it," Juliet said, her voice low enough to draw the serious attention of the three men near her. "It's just that, well, that woman has been sitting here for hours. She said she's waiting for someone, but wouldn't let me call, and now she's watching us. It's just… a bit weird." The three men looked in the direction Juliet was looking, and frowned. She thought, just for a second, that she heard Shawn swear under his breath, and when she looked back, it was obvious that he was angry about something.

"Damn," Gus said, though his face was appreciative rather than angry. Shawn had begun walking quickly through the desks toward the woman, and she must have been waiting for that, because she finally stood from the bench, her hands catching the manila envelope behind her before it could fall to the floor. Gus made to follow, but he noticed the angry expression on Shawn's face and hung back a bit.

"Does he know her?" Juliet asked, confused at the strange behavior.

"I've never seen her before," Gus said, then shrugged. "Maybe she's one of the girls he's dated and then not called."

Even though Gus had shrugged it off, he and Juliet continued to watch as Shawn came to a stop, much closer to the woman then he would have if she had been a stranger. Obviously, he didn't want anyone overhearing their conversation. Juliet had never seen Shawn look so serious, and apparently, it worried Gus as much as it worked her, because Gus started making his way across the room. After a slight hesitation, Juliet followed.

"Why are you here?" Shawn had asked as soon as he was within speaking range of the woman. He immediately noticed that she clutched an envelope behind her, but gave it no thought. "How did you even find me here?" At this, she rolled her eyes.

"Don't patronize me," she said, keeping her voice low as she noticed the two people following him. "I knew where you were going as soon as you left."

"And I told you that I wanted nothing to do with you," Shawn nearly spat. His shoulders were tense and his face was angry. There were multiple people glancing over at the two of them now, though their voices wouldn't have carried at all.

"I know," she said, then she sighed a bit and seemed to lose some of her confidence. "Look, I waited for you here so that you wouldn't cause a scene. Obviously that idea didn't work too well," she gestured toward the pillar that Gus and Juliet were tucked behind. He glanced around, and immediately stood straighter, adopting his usual easy going appearance. Then he frowned at her again.

"Why are you here?" He asked again, softly this time. He knew she was getting him to relax by seeming cowed and frightened, but she was good at playing people, and it was natural for his body to relax a little as she seemed to turn more and more into a frightened girl. Even though his mind was telling him that she did everything on purpose, he couldn't help that some of his anger slipped away. If he didn't know her as well as he did, he would say that she actually was scared.

"I'm not sticking around," she promised, knowing that even though she had gotten him to calm down a little, that would be the question he most wanted answered. "I just came to warn you."

"Warn me about what?" Shawn asked, giving a resigned sigh. He should have known that she wouldn't come here unless it was important. She waved the manila envelope a bit, then glanced around again.

"Is there somewhere less occupied that we can talk?" She asked, letting her voice carry a little, knowing that the two behind the pillar would come out if they thought the argument was over. She knew who they were, of course, and she knew that Shawn trusted both of them, and she also knew that she could trust them to help her cause, with this at least. A moment later, Gus and Juliet were near enough to talk to them.

"You can use the conference room," Juliet said, gesturing toward the empty room. The woman nodded her thanks, and Shawn gave another resigned sigh, then marched off to the room.

"You can stay but the blinds have to be closed," the woman said to Juliet and Gus as they followed behind her a little hesitant. Shawn snorted as the woman bossy attitude came out, and Juliet bristled a little, but she began to close the blinds on the windows obediently. Shawn took a chair on the opposite side of the wide table from the woman, and Gus and Juliet took the ones and either side of him. Juliet, picking up on the tense atmosphere of the room, had adjusted her holster so that her gun was within easy reach.

"Shawn, who's your friend?" Juliet asked, trying to get rid of the tension in the room.

"She is not my friend," Shawn said automatically. The woman gave him a sarcastic smile.

"Even after I came all this way to warn you?" She asked, her voice soft and pleading, though Juliet could see now that her eyes were cold.

"Cut the crap," Shawn said. "Get to the point."

"Fine," the woman said, dropping all her pretenses and adopting a cold, business like attitude. "My name is Aisha Kelly. I met Shawn about 15 years ago when he was traveling. Five years ago we had a fight and he told me he never wanted to see me again." Her eyes locked onto Shawn now. "He got mad at me for lying about something important because I was trying to protect myself." Shawn shifted in his seat a bit. He had known she would pull something like this as soon as he saw her and he had tried to prepare himself for it, but she really was making him sound hypocritical. Wasn't he doing nearly the same thing now? But no, this was different. She gave him a thin smile, knowing she had gotten some of her point across. "Normally, I would have respected his wishes," he snorted at this, "and I would have stayed away. But two months ago I started getting these." She opened the envelope and pulled out a thick pile of pictures. Some of them were of her, some of Shawn, even a few of Shawn with Gus or other people, and a few with people that neither of the three knew. All of them had notes on the top, written in red sharpie, usually saying things like 'time is running out' or 'make the choice'. The three of them passed the pictures between each other.

"This sounds like a serious issue," Juliet said, her gaze falling on a picture of her and Shawn leaving the station. She wasn't sure how old the picture was. "We can file a report for stalking charges and put you under police protection-"

"No," Aisha said, giving the other woman a half smile. "I don't need any of that. I can protect myself just fine," she said, her eyes falling to one of the pictures. She drew it out of the pile. "I received this one this morning." The note on top of this one read 'Time's up.' The picture was of a middle aged man with a slight belly, getting into his car. "This was my neighbor at the place I was staying at for the last three months. His body was found an hour after I got this." Juliet gasped, but Aisha ignored her.

"Why didn't you bring this to the police?" Juliet asked, frowning. "We could have prevented this from happening."

"Honestly, I didn't think they were serious," Aisha said, shrugging, not the least bit upset, though Shawn knew she was probably kicking herself. He could tell by the way her eyes flicked to the picture then away again. "Now that I know they are, I came to warn you to keep a lookout," she was looking at Shawn as she said this, and he frowned back at her, a little confused. She had never bothered to care about him before, which was evident by the fact that she had lied to him for ten years. She schooled her features into their normal blank mask, knowing that, of all the people she had ever met, Shawn was able to read her the best. They gazed at each other for a moment more, then Shawn looked back down at the pictures. "They are starting with people I don't really care about," she continued a moment later.

"What does this mean?" Juliet asked, gazing down at the photographs again. "'Time to choose', 'make your decision'" She quoted.

"They want my help for something and I am disinclined to do so," Aisha said nonchalantly.

"What do they want you to do?" Gus asked, his head tilted a little.

"So you know who they are?" Juliet asked at the same time, her voice morphing from concerned into the hard detective voice. Aisha smiled at her, though it was an empty look, like the rest had been.

"I know who they are, more or less," she said, then looked to Gus. "I'm… pretty good with computers. They probably want me to hack something for them." She ignored Shawn's snort.

"Well tell us who they are and we can bring them in," Juliet insisted.

"No you can't," Aisha said, shaking her head in a condescending manner. Juliet immediately sat back in her chair, feeling as though she were a child again without really knowing why. Maybe it was the way the woman was speaking to her. She frowned a little. "The people looking for me are not people that could be brought in. If you arrested them they would be out of jail within an hour with no record of them ever having been here at all. Remind you of anyone you know?" She said, raising a thin eyebrow at the other woman. Juliet began to shake her head in confusion, but then she frowned. "The people looking for me are very similar to your brother. They have a lot of power and they are very good at misusing it." Juliet bristled for a moment, but she had to admit that Ewan had misused his power and had nearly broken the law.

"I think you should stay here until we can make certain that you are safe," Juliet said, choosing to ignore the previous statements. Aisha shook her head.

"I am safe, I wouldn't even have bothered coming here if they hadn't threatened Shawn," she said, and suddenly something clicked in Juliet's mind. This woman cared about Shawn. A lot. Maybe she loved him. For some reason, that made Juliet dislike the woman a little, though she had no real claim over her psychic friend. Shawn seemed to realize something at the same time Juliet did, and Aisha realized she had made a mistake by letting them figure her out a little. "Look, Shawn, I know you hate me or whatever, but you are the closest thing to family I have and I don't want you to get killed because of me." She was gazing at the wall of windows behind the three others now so she wouldn't have to take in their expressions, though she still did from the corner of her eye. She nearly sighed when Shawn actually looked surprised. Did he honestly think that she didn't care about him? They had spent nearly ten years traveling the world together, and they had dated for a majority of that time, until she had ruined it by trusting him enough to tell him the truth about herself. He had been so angry, it was the only real fight they had ever had, and he had made her promise to stay away from him for the rest of her life. Okay, she had been really bad at showing her emotions, and she had lied to him, but how could he think that she didn't care about him? She wouldn't have spent ten years following just anyone around from country to country.

"Why not just give them what they want?" The other three were drawn out of their own thoughts as Gus spoke.

"Because I have morals," Aisha said, trying to ignore Shawn's snort of derision again. She frowned at him for a moment, but didn't say anything about it. "Whatever they want, I don't want any part of it."

"I really think you should file a police report. Even if these people are working for the government, they can't just go around killing people," Juliet said, frowning.

"They are smart," Aisha said, shrugging. "They won't leave any evidence behind. They will make it look like an accident. I'm going to leave town again, I just stopped by on my way out of the country." She looked at Shawn for another long moment, then stood. "If you get into trouble, let me know."

"I don't need your help," Shawn spat, so angrily that the other two looked at him in shock. Aisha just smiled again.

"I know you don't," she said, walking towards the door.

"How do we contact you?" Juliet asked, frowning. "If you are leaving the country…"

"Shawn knows how. He can tell you whatever he wants to tell you," she said, pulling the door open. She seemed unsurprised to find the tall lanky detective directly on the other side of the door. "Hello detective Lassiter," she said, slipping past him. "It was nice to meet you all." She was out of the station before they were able to say anything else.

"Shawn, what's going on?" Juliet finally asked as Lassiter joined them in the conference room. He glanced down at the photos that Shawn was gathering into a pile, then turned to glare at his partner.

"In case you were unaware, we have a murder case to be working," he said, scowling.

"The murderer was the victim," Shawn said, foregoing his usual overly hyper, spastic 'vision' attitude. "The nail marks on his arms and face were made by the murderer, trying to defend herself. He was probably trying to force her into a car. Run his name and you will find he had a record, two counts of assault and one dropped charge of rape. The girl you are looking for will have bruises on her arms matching the victims grip. She probably managed to push him away and he hit his head on something, probably a concrete pillar, and the girl panicked and dumped the body. I'm guessing it happened late last night in a parking garage near the ocean. There are four I can think of, all of which have security cameras. I need to go," he changed the subject so quickly that he was up and out the door before the others could process what he had said. Gus knew that he had used his dad's computer to run the dead guys name, but the rest had been a surprise to him as well. That woman must have really shaken him up, if he wasn't bothering to do his psychic act for the two.

"Shawn!" Gus called after his friend, following him out of the room. Lassiter and Juliet traded a confused look, but both of them left the room as well, since they had no reason to be there anymore.

"I'll be right back," they heard Shawn call over his shoulder. "I have to figure out where she left the list, then I'll come back and explain everything."

"What list?" Gus asked, but Shawn left the station before Gus had caught up. Gus followed him out, but came back a few moments later, shaking his head. "I don't know whats going on," Gus said, coming to a stop in front of Juliet. Lassiter had, grudgingly, gone to follow up on what Shawn had said about the dead body. "I've never seen him act like that before."

"And you've never heard of that girl before?" Juliet asked, telling herself she was just curious, not jealous at all.

"I didn't really hear from Shawn often when he was traveling. I got postcards once in a while, but no letters or anything. I guess I should have assumed that he would make friends on the road. I just never really thought about it," Gus said, shrugging as he tried to play it off, though Juliet could tell he was concerned.

"Do you want me to run her name through the system?" Juliet asked soothingly. She was curious too, and she could use the excuse of Gus wanting to know to run the name. He nodded and followed her over to her desk, looking around to make sure Lassiter wasn't nearby as he would probably disapprove of using police resources for something not case related.

Juliet pulled up the police records site and typed Aisha Kelly into the search bar. It said that no one by that name existed. She tried a few different spellings of the name, but they all came up as empty searches.

"Maybe that was a fake name," Gus suggested, glancing toward the doors now, obviously wondering where Shawn was now. He pulled out his phone and texted his friend about the search and leaving the instructions to call him immediately.

"Why would she give a fake name?" Juliet asked, frowning.

"You don't think she killed that guy do you? Maybe she was trying to hide from the police and wanted Shawn's help?" Gus was always overly suspicious of people who came looking for Shawn's help, and that woman had been… odd.

"I don't know. We will just have to wait for Shawn," Juliet said, shrugging. "Any idea where he went?" Gus's phone rang before he could answer.

"Shawn, where are you?" Gus asked immediately, putting the phone on speaker so Juliet could hear him too.

"My place," Shawn said, "but I'm heading to the office in a minute."

"Want me to meet you there?" Gus asked, frowning. He had driven Shawn to the station. Walking, it would take him at least twenty minutes to reach Psych from his apartment. Glancing at his watch, Gus frowned. It was usually a fifteen minute walk from the station to Shawn's latest apartment, and he had been gone for less then ten.

"No need," Shawn said, and Gus could hear traffic through the phone. "I'll be back at the station in half an hour, I just need to get a few things."

"Shawn, are you running?" Gus asked, recognizing the slightly out of breath sound of Shawn's talking.

"Nope, see you later buddy," Shawn said, and the phone disconnected.

"That was weird," Gus said, frowning as he tucked his phone back into his pocket. "And he didn't say anything about whoever that woman is."

"Well he's coming back, we can just wait," Juliet reasoned, spotting Lassiter coming back up the stairs, probably from the morgue. "This has been a really weird day."

"You know that's right," Gus said, spotting Lassiter as well. "I'll go wait for Shawn."

"Okay," Juliet said, already getting back in the mindset of the case they were supposed to be working.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: April 2, 1995

It had been almost a month since Shawn had made the decision to leave Santa Barbara. His eighteenth birthday had come and passed a week before, almost without notice on his part. He had stayed in San Fransisco for for three weeks, working as a tour guide, but that had worn thin after the first few days. He had spent a week in Vegas, gambling only because he knew his father would hate it if he knew. He had sent Gus a postcard from there too, and now he had quite a bit of spending money, as he had never lost a game of cards. He had left the city only a few hours ago, heading north on his bike, when he came across the girl. She had a backpack with what looked like a sleeping bag on top hoisted over her shoulders, and she was wearing the proper clothes for desert travel. She had stuck her arm out, hand closed, thumb up, in the typical hitchhikers pose when she had heard the sounds of an approaching vehicle. She had kept walking though, assuming that the person wouldn't bother to stop.

It took Shawn about half a second to decide to pull over. He hadn't done it simply because this was a girl, he had done it because his father's warnings about picking up strangers was ringing in the back of his mind telling him to keep driving. She had been shielding her eyes from the dust blown up by the slight wind, but now she looked up with surprise. She didn't look afraid, though he was a guy and he easily could have been armed or looking for something she didn't want to give him. Now that he looked at her properly, she looked to be about his age, maybe a little older. She was tall and slim, though he could see her muscles working to carry her backpack, which, now that he was closer, looked like any typical hikers gear, which meant it was probably close to fifty pounds, more if she was carrying more water than the single bottle he could see in the side pocket. She looked tired, her face, bare of any makeup, was drawn and nervous. Her dark hair, which might have been clean before she had come outside, was tangled and dusty, probably from the wind, and her green eyes had dark circles underneath them.

He took all of this in within a few seconds, then noticed her giving him the same once over he had given her, a cursory look for weapons or danger.

"Need a ride?" he asked, brushing his almost too long hair out of his face.

"Yes please," she said, walking toward him.

"Hop on," he said, giving her a smile at last. She returned it and climbed on behind him, and he noticed immediately that she seemed to know how to conduct herself on a motorcycle. She wrapped her arms loosely around his stomach as he kicked the bike into motion again. With his helmet and the wind, talking was impossible, but he could tell she was tense as they rode. She relaxed little by little the farther they traveled. Perhaps she was running away from things, just like he had been when he had left home. They had crossed the state border into Utah before he pulled into a gas station for fuel and food. He left his helmet hanging on the handle bars and turned to find the woman he had picked up watching him warily.

"What's your name?" He asked, letting his easy going attitude return in an attempt to calm her down.

"Louise Howard," she said, "and yours?"

"Shawn Spencer," he replied, though he could tell she was probably using a fake name. She looked too nervous to be telling him the truth.

"Well, Louise Howard, are you hungry?" He asked, grinning. Besides the fact that she looked exhausted and worn, she really was very pretty.

"Yes, actually," she said, relaxing a little when he didn't question her. He finished filling up the bikes tank, then walked it into an actual parking spot before going into the little station. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to buy her food, but the question was quelled when she pulled out a fold of money from her pocket to buy the bag of cheese pretzels she had picked up. The two of them sat on the edge of the small sidewalk in front of the station to eat in a slightly tense silence.

"So what's your story?" She asked at last.

"My story?" Shawn replied in a confused tone, though he understood she was asking why he had picked her up.

"Sure, everyone has one. Why are you riding around alone not heading anywhere?" She asked.

"How do you know I'm not heading anywhere?" He asked, frowning.

"You didn't take the direct route here from where we were. You took a road that added an extra hour to your time. If you were headed somewhere you would have known where you were going," she reasoned, and he grinned.

"Maybe I meant to take the long way," he said in a teasing tone.

"After picking up a stranger and not asking where she was headed? No, you are just traveling to travel," she said, shaking her head.

"Where are you going?" He asked, realizing she was right.

"Wherever you are willing to take me," she replied, meaning that she didn't have a set destination either.

"I'm not sure where I'm going," he said, shrugging.

"Me neither. I left a bad situation with no plans of where to head next," she said, giving a bit of an explanation, though Shawn was sure it was more than that. He couldn't blame her for not spilling her life story to him though.

"Same here," he said, shrugging. "If you pay for half the gas, I'll take you wherever you want." She grinned.

"What if I'm a murderer or running from the police?" She asked jokingly.

"You aren't armed," Shawn pointed out.

"Neither are you," she replied as though that didn't say much about a person.

"If you were running from someone you would have given me specific directions where to take you when I picked you up. You also would have been less likely to trust me, a stranger, and you would be actively defensive right now since I'm questioning you. You also would have been in more of a hurry to find a ride away from where you were when I picked you up. If you were a criminal you would be armed with something, if not a gun, then a knife, to defend yourself," Shawn said, shrugging. "My dad was a cop and I'm pretty good at reading people."

"I am armed," she said, lifting the hem of her shirt to reveal a nearly flat knife sheath with a flat dagger in it. "But I'm not a criminal," she said, sighing. For some reason, Shawn believed her.

"Even though you are using a fake name?" He pointed out, and she shrugged, not surprised that he knew that she had lied. He was cursing himself for not thinking of a knife when he had looked her over for weapons earlier.

"You could be anybody," she said as reasoning.

"But I'm not," he said, grinning as he finished off his sandwich and stood. "We can get in a few more hours before the sun sets and it gets cold. You aren't dressed for riding so we should stop before then. What's in your pack?"

"I have a tent and sleeping bag, a change of clothes, some wire traps for game hunting," at his curious look she sighed and explained further. "I'm good at trapping and fishing and I thought I might need to feed myself for a while. I have a spare blanket and some water too." Shawn nodded, impressed a bit. She really had a full hikers pack, and she didn't look to be struggling though she had been carrying it all day. Shawn would rather stay at a hotel or something, but camping didn't require any money, usually. "And if you aren't opposed to breaking the law a bit, I can get whatever else we need," she added. He raised an eyebrow and she shrugged. "I'm good with technology of all sorts. Electric lock systems like most big stores have is simple, and I can circumvent most security systems."

"That must come in handy," Shawn said, ignoring the small voice in his head that sounded like his father. "I'm good at gambling," he said, because he felt like he should add something to the conversation. She grinned.

"Good, because I don't like stealing money unless I have to," she said. "I do have some morals." They both laughed as Shawn put his helmet back on and climbed onto the bike. She climbed on behind him after tossing her empty bag of pretzels into a trash can nearby. Briefly, she wondered what it was that made her trust Shawn as much as she did.

She had looked him up while they ate. Other than one recent count of theft, he had no record. His social networking pages were limited, but that wasn't surprising. He didn't seem like the type to pour his heart and soul out on the internet. She did a little further digging as they rode, knowing that he wouldn't notice her zoning out when he was busy watching the road. His arresting officer had been Henry Spencer, and she was sure, after hearing his father was a cop, that the name wasn't a coincidence. He had gotten six months probation, which had ended just over a month ago. She dug a little further into Henry Spencer and found a divorce certificate on file, from a Madeline Shepherd. She wondered if that was why Shawn had left Santa Barbara, but she couldn't ask him. That would lead to too many other questions, like how she knew that much without having been told. She stopped her searching after that, not wanting to find something out that she could potentially slip up on. She let herself relax a little more, though not enough to fall asleep against Shawn.

The sun had set almost a half hour before the temperatures really started to drop. This wasn't her first night out in the open, but she was still dreading the cold night ahead. They were farther north than she had been before, and the difference was more drastic than she had expected. The trees were thicker here, and it was much less like a desert. The wind was blocked by the trees so it wasn't as harsh now, but the air had a slight frigidity to it.

"Want to find somewhere to stop?" Shawn shouted back to her when he noticed her shivering.

"Find a town first," she yelled back. He nodded, turning back to the road as she tucked her face into the back of his shoulders, using him to shield the breeze caused by the speed he was driving. The next town took only about twenty minutes to get to, maybe less, she wasn't sure. Her fingers were cold and stiff. She would have to find some gloves before they continued on. She spotted a dingy looking motel and tapped his shoulder to get Shawn's attention, then pointed. When they had pulled to a stop, she sat back and chaffed her hands together to warm them up. It wasn't very late, but only a few of the motel windows had lights on in them, and there were only a couple cars parked in the lot. She glanced around, spotting the check in office, then looked for a room that was dark on the other end of the building. If there had been rooms on the back side she would have picked one of those ones, but it was a small place so she didn't have many choices. Shawn watched her, one eyebrow raised as he watched her take in all her surroundings, looking almost like he was sure he looked when he did the same thing. She gestured for him to be quiet and wait a moment, then she stalked off towards a room near the end of the building and peered in the open window. Satisfied, she walked to the door and made sure to put herself in Shawn's line of sight so he wouldn't be able to see what she did. A moment later, the door was open. She flipped the little metal thing around to hold it open, then walked back to where Shawn was waiting.

"Nice trick," he said, nodding to the door. She grabbed her pack from the ground by the bike and smiled.

"I can be useful sometimes," she said in a joking manner, as he lifted the bike seat to pull his own backpack from underneath it. She led him back to the room, then hissed when he flipped the light on, and reached over to turn it off again. "No lights. The desk person will know this room isn't rented out and if they see lights they will call the cops." As she spoke, she blinked to let her eyes adjust to the dark again. The door was closed and she put the chain lock there in case someone else tried to come in. That way, they would have enough warning to leave some other way. The only other window in the place was a small one in the bathroom, she found, but she was sure they could both fit through it if need be. As Shawn closed the heavy drapes over the window, she turned on the small light from the bathroom, closing the door nearly all the way, but giving them enough light to see by without letting it flow through the windows.

"You know a lot about sneaking around," Shawn said, and she sensed the leading question.

"I haven't had an actual home in quite a while, I've learned a lot," she said, shrugging. "Where do you usually stay when you are on the road?"

"I'm good at making friends at short notice," Shawn said, grinning. "Usually I can get someone to let me stay the night."

"What, you troll bars and pick up girls?" She asked, grinning at the near genius of that plan. He would always have somewhere to stay and could have fun along the way. "Do they know you aren't old enough to drink?"

"How do you know how old I am?" He asked, tilting his head to one side.

"Please, you have a baby face. I'd guess eighteen or nineteen at the most," she said, though she knew he was eighteen from his file.

"I'm going to guess twenty?" He asked, looking her over.

"I think I should be offended," she said, though her voice was teasing again. "I'm eighteen."

"My bad," he said as an apology though he didn't sound like he meant it. She shrugged.

"I'm going to take a shower," she said, nodding toward the bathroom. "If you turn on the tv, keep it quiet, the last thing we need is a noise complaint. And if you have to go through my things while I'm not around, put them back neatly," she said, knowing that in his place, she would do the same. He grinned and held up his hands.

"Well if I'm going to be sleeping with a stranger I should at least know what they have on them," he said, chuckling.

"We aren't sleeping together," she said, frowning. Maybe she had misjudged him. Maybe he was the kind of person that would expect some sort of bodily repayment for picking her up.

"I meant actual sleeping," he said, nodding to the single bed in the room. "But I'm sure other arraignments could be made," he waggled his eyebrows at her and she realized he was joking. She grinned back, glad her previous thought had been wrong. His face grew serious for a moment, and she was struck by how different this look was from the previously joking self he had been. "I won't take advantage of you," he said, his voice sincere. "You don't owe me anything and you can leave any time you want." It was like he had read her mind, and she said as much. He just laughed. "I know its not the safest thing to be traveling alone, and you being a girl its probably harder for you," he reasoned. "I grew up around police cases, so I've seen a lot of twisted things that can happen to people. I promise not to do anything to get myself arrested."

"Thanks," she said, giving him a soft smile. She wasn't sure what else to say, so she disappeared into the bathroom, plunging the room into darkness again. When she stepped out of the bathroom, the tv was on, though the volume was so low she could barely hear it. She turned the bathroom light off, figuring that the tv gave them enough light to see by. Shawn had taken a place on the bed, leaning against the wall to watch the tv, and he glanced over at her as she came out, then did a double take when he saw she was only in her underwear.

"Uh, what are you doing?" He asked, trying in vain to keep his eyes from traveling over her.

"I said I had one change of clothes," she said in a 'duh' tone of voice. "It would be a waste of space to pack pajamas and my other clothes are dirty and uncomfortable to sleep in. It's not like you haven't seen a naked girl before. You are eighteen and the internet has a lot of sites you've probably been to." He didn't deny this accusation, but he did shrug and get to his feet. He grabbed his backpack from the floor and disappeared into the bathroom to take his own shower. In the meantime, she curled up on the side of the bed left for her and was almost instantly asleep. To her credit, she did wake up when the shower shut off, again when he opened the door, and when he slid into the bed, careful to leave space between them. She wasn't stupid enough to think that everything would be fine once she was asleep, and she had always been a very light sleeper, which had saved her life on more than one occasion.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: May 12 2010

Shawn took a lot longer then half an hour to return to the station. Lassiter and Juliet had gone to question the business with the parking garages like Shawn had mentioned. The third one they checked was the one they were looking for. True to Shawn's word, the video showed the dead man attacking a girl. She clawed at him, pushing and struggling to get away until a lucky kick hit the guy's knee and he stumbled back a bit. An extra push from the girl sent him stumbling backwards into a cement pillar where he hit his head and fell to the ground. The girl then proceeded to freak out, panicking, before somehow managing to get the man into the trunk of her car, driving off in the direction of some nearby cliffs. The two detectives then tracked down the girl using her car's plates, and she admitted to it readily enough. They had her back at the station and booked within an hour and a half, the end of by which saw Gus still sitting in the entryway waiting for Shawn. Gus had called him multiple times, but Shawn's phone was off. By the time he got back to the station, Gus, not to mention Juliet, was thoroughly pissed. Shawn waved off their concerns and gathered them into the conference room, somehow managing to ditch Lassiter.

"I just think he should be here," Juliet said, frowning. "He was in one of the pictures, and if you're in trouble he should be in on it too."

"Fine," Shawn surrendered, much easier then Juliet had been expecting. He waited a few moments as Juliet found Lassiter and got him into the room, then they filled him in on the woman who had been here earlier.

"Well do you know where she went?" He asked, glancing unwillingly at Shawn, as he was the only one who might know where she had been heading. "She might be wanted for murder, or some other crime. People using false names usually are running from the law."

"She's long gone by now," Shawn said, shrugging. "She uses a fake name because she is running from some government people, but not for a crime." His voice was slightly defensive, though his anger toward the woman was obvious in his tone. "Her real name is Evelyn Reynolds, but don't bother looking her up, there won't be anything on her anywhere."

"So she is a criminal," Lassiter said, arguing back. "If she tampered with her own files, that's a crime."

"You'd never be able to catch her on it, and she isn't a criminal," Shawn said, his voice definitely protective now. He sighed a little, but shook his head. "I met her in 1995, about a month after I left town actually. She was hitch hiking in Nevada and didn't have anywhere to go, so we stuck together for a while."

"How long is a while?" Gus asked, frowning. His arms were crossed over his chest in a defensive manner. He didn't like that he hadn't heard of someone who had obviously meant something to Shawn.

"Ten years," he said, shrugging. "We got along really well and she liked traveling. I didn't know till almost a year in that she liked traveling because she didn't feel safe in one place too long. Okay, this is a little weird I guess." He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to find the right words to explain what she had told him five years ago. "Before I came back here, she told me about her life before I met her. Area 51…" he trailed off, knowing that the story was a little unbelievable.

"Area 51?" Juliet asked, frowning. "Like, aliens and stuff?"

"No," Shawn said, shrugging as he decided to just tell it straight without leaving things out to make it more believable. "Area 51 is a restricted research area in Nevada… This is all according to her, I've never been, obviously. She was brought there when she was five, from an orphanage in Michigan. 'They always use orphans because they don't have anyone to come looking for them if something goes wrong,'" he said in a voice that was obviously quoting her. They do all sorts of… I guess the best term is human experimentation, but that sounds a bit sci-fi. They don't like, try to make human animal hybrids or anything. Never mind," he said, shaking his head. He had gotten off track. He sort of understood now why she hadn't told him earlier. It was an unbelievable story unless you had seen the things she could do. "She has a chip in her head, she's had it since she was six. It lets her sort of… connect to computers. Not connect, but… well her brain is like a computer I guess. In her test group there were ten kids, she's the only one who lived because her memory was already similar to the way a computer runs. She has eidetic memory, like…" he trailed off, not saying 'like me' as he had been about to. "She explained it in computer terms. She said to imagine that the brain is like a hard drive, and the chip is like a hot spot wifi transmitter. She literally has the internet in her head and she can use it to hack pretty much anything with electric." He trailed off, staring into space as he recalled the things he had seen her do. He didn't notice for a moment that the other three were staring at him, open mouthed.

"You can't seriously expect us to believe that Spencer," Lassiter said in his usual growl.

"Believe whatever you want," Shawn said, for once not arguing. "You all wanted an explanation, so I gave it to you."

"What took you so long to get back here?" Gus asked, his eyes a little wider than usual. He was obviously trying to stop the impending argument from Lassiter while trying to conceal his own panic that someone like that could exist.

"Oh, sorry about that," Shawn said, reverting a little bit to his usual self. "Her hints were harder to crack than I remember them being." He pulled out four orange sticky notes, all with a different random word on them. "This is how you get ahold of her. On any computer or phone, you type Evelyn Reynolds into a blank text document, then these four keywords in after it. It works like a text, basically. She's always scanning for these words all together, so she notices immediately when you type them in." The sticky notes read 'Pineapple', 'Dinosaur', 'Blueberry', and 'Psychic' on them. "It took me longer than I'd like to admit to realize the pattern this time. Usually she uses city names."

"You are wasting our time," Lassiter said, getting to his feet. Shawn just shrugged and pull out his phone.

"Here," he said, setting it on the table in front of them. Lassiter, despite his denial, leaned in to watch too, curious. Shawn opened a new note, then typed in Evelyn Reynolds, followed by the four words. They stared for a moment, then all of them leaned back a bit as the screen seemed to falter, the light balance fading for just a split second.

'Don't tell me you need my help already,' spelled out on the screen under the words, one letter at a time as though being typed, but much faster than anyone could actually type.

'Just proving a point,' Shawn replied. They all leaned forward again, fascinated. The words on the screen all vanished to be replaced with Evelyn's words.

'Great, if you're done showing off I'm busy running for my life.'

"She's so over dramatic," Shawn muttered, rolling his eyes.

'You aren't the one wanted by a bunch of people who are intent on killing off your friends.' appeared underneath the previous words for a few seconds, then they all vanished.

"She can hear us?" Gus asked, his voice raising a little.

"She's basically in the phone, she can use all its features," Shawn said, shrugging.

'You're an idiot, 'Psychic'.' appeared before Shawn was able to grab the phone from his table. He closed the application and tucked his phone away.

"That's… impossible," Lassiter said, frowning in thought.

"You can try it again on your computer if you want, but eventually she's going to get upset with constant testing and I wouldn't put it past her to erase everything on your computer in retaliation," Shawn said, half smiling now. His phone dinged, and he pulled it out again, opening the text he had received. There was no number in the sent by area.

'I'm not as immature as you are, Shawn. I wouldn't do that to a cop.' It wasn't signed, but he knew who it was from.

"Stop eavesdropping on us, Eve," he said, but his voice was amused now. Maybe he wasn't as angry with her as he had been. He certainly understood her a lot better now than he had when she had told him all of this.

'Make me,' appeared on the screen. He frowned and turned his phone off.

"Immature," he muttered, shaking his head.

"You're one to talk," Lassiter said, but there was no venom in his voice as he sat, face in his hands, thinking about what had just been proven to him.

"If she can do that with a phone… can't she hack computers just as easily?" Juliet asked, speaking for the first time since the story had begun. Shawn nodded. "But then… she could hack into peoples private documents and steal their identities if she wanted to, or steal their bank account information."

"She could," Shawn agreed. "But she doesn't want to." His voice had returned to the defending tone that Juliet disliked on him, just a little. "She does have morals. That's why she won't just do the easy thing and hand herself over to whoever's hunting her. She doesn't want to be used." Maybe he really had been too quick to judge her five years ago. She had lied about herself, but he had known her, known she wasn't a bad person. He should have listened longer, or tried to understand more. She had just been protecting herself, and him. He would have to think about things more, and maybe apologize. Later though.

"So we are just supposed to take your word for it and protect this woman?" Lassiter asked, his tone conveying his disbelief.

"She doesn't need protecting," Shawn said, shaking his head. "She just wanted to warn me that someone might come after me eventually. And I'm only telling you guys because if I randomly disappear, you need to get her to come back to track me down."

"Right," Lassiter said, shaking his head. He stood a moment later. "O'Hara, we have real work to do. Spencer, go find somewhere else to be." He left the room in his usual angry walk. Juliet followed a moment later, giving Shawn a small smile. Shawn and Gus headed out to the parking lot.

"They didn't even have internet when we were six," Gus said, frowning.

"They had a form of the internet in 1983," Shawn said immediately, sounding more like Gus then ever. "And do you really think that privately funded research facilities weren't way ahead of the rest of the world?"

"True," Gus said, frowning as he walked.

"Want to go for smoothies?" Shawn asked, grinning at his friend.

"Sure," Gus said, smiling back as he climbed into the driver's seat of the car. Shawn hopped on his motorcycle and the two of the headed toward their usual smoothie place.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: August 29, 1995

"Hold still," she said, laughing as Shawn fidgeted again.

"You're going to mess it up," he said, leaning forward out of her grip again.

"I will if you keep moving," she said, pulling him back against the chair. "I might cut you ear off too. Just hold still."

"Fine," he said, grumbling. She raised the scissors again and continued from where she had left off. Shawn gasped as a chunk of his hair fell away.

"You are cutting it way too short!" He practically screeched, jumping away from her to go look in the mirror.

"I'm only cutting it a little shorter then it was when I met you," she objected, dragging him back to the chair.

"You obviously can't remember that well," he said, sighing. She had already started, so now it would look weird if she stopped the hair cut.

"Of course I can," she said, almost sounding like his mother for a moment. "Haven't you noticed that I don't forget anything, ever?" To be honest, he hadn't noticed. He never forgot anything either, so it had slipped by him that she remembered everything he spoke to her about. Now that he thought about it for a moment, he couldn't recall a single time he had ever had to remind her of anything. She had continued cutting his hair while he thought back over the few months he had known her. "I have an eidetic memory," she said after a while. "Like you do."

"How do you know that?" He asked, frowning. He had never told her, but he supposed it hadn't been a secret.

"I'm more observant than you are," she said, grinning, though he couldn't see her expression. He didn't respond to that because it was probably true. He had done his best in the last few months to suppress the memories of his dad's lessons, but he found himself picking things up without meaning to, but his attention was always focused on other people and things, not, necessarily, on himself and the person traveling with him. She was silent too as she finished cutting his hair. She ruffled it when she was done, making the loose pieces fall to the floor. She would have to be sure she swept up well before they left. Right now, and for the past week, they had been staying in a rich guy's mansion while he and his wife were away on vacation. The house sitter they had hired only came by once every few days, and the house was large enough that the woman always seemed to overlook the two stowaways. She never did much more than check the mail and make sure the security system was still on, not that it did anything with Evelyn there to turn off the motion sensors that would have set it off.

"Done," she said, grinning. Shawn went to the mirror to analyze his new, much shorter hairstyle. She had done a pretty good job for someone who had never cut hair before. It looked nearly the same as it had before, just much shorter.

"Thanks," he said, grinning as he turned back toward her.

"Your turn," she said, holding the scissors out to him. He grinned and accepted them, pushing her down into the chair. She lifted her hair, playing with it for a moment. "Cut it really short," she said at last. "Like a boys cut."

"Are you sure," Shawn asked, frowning a little as he gently played with a strand of her hair, which had lightened considerably from when they had met, since they spent long hours riding in the sun. It curled around her shoulders softly, and it was shiny, despite the frequent hotel conditioners they used. "I'm a professional you know, and I think you should leave it long."

"Shawn, you worked at a salon for two weeks," she said, shaking her head. "And you worked at the desk. I don't think you count as a professional. I don't want it long anymore. It gets tangled too easily and dirty too quickly on the road, and it's hard to take care of." Shawn still shook his head. He secretly loved her hair, and he didn't want to cut it off. She grabbed the scissors from him, and before he could blink, she had cut off most of the long hair hanging over her shoulder. He watched as the long curls fell to the ground. "There, now you have to fix it," she said, handing the scissors back to him and turning around. He swallowed, then did his best to even it out where she had cut it off, just below her ears. It was a little longer in the front because of the angle she had cut it at, but he left it that way. He was silent through the process, letting his hands linger a little longer then necessary on her shoulders and hair. Finally, he ran his hand through the much shorter locks, dislodging any non attached hair. She stood and shook her shirt a little to get the hair off of it, then she went to the mirror to look.

"Is it too short?" Shawn asked, frowning. She looked different with short hair, older, and a little more mature. She turned and grinned, leaning back against the counter in front of the mirror.

"It's perfect, you did a great job," she said. "Thanks." He sighed and picked up the chair to move it back to its previous place. Why anyone needed a chair in a bathroom was beyond him. Evelyn grabbed the broom they had hunted down earlier and began sweeping the hair into a little pile. "Why do you look like someone just killed your dog?" She asked when she had finished dumping the hair into the little trash bin under the counter.

"No reason," he said, leaning against the door frame. "I just… liked your hair long." She glanced at him for a moment, frowning a little, then she smiled and walked toward him.

"Don't you like it short too?" She asked, coming to a stop a little too close to him. She lifted his hand and moved it so it was against the side of her head. "It's so soft now." Her words were still playful but her voice was softer, and she was leaning forward a little. He mirrored her actions unconsciously, letting his hand smooth along the ends of her hair and down her neck a little. She closed her eyes halfway, and leaned forward so the top half of her body was nearly pressed against him. He leaned his face closer to hers without realizing it, and her arms came up to wrap around his neck. His other hands dropped to her waist automatically, and he realized what he was doing and leaned back a little to look at her.

"What are you doing?" He asked, though it was obvious.

"Making you appreciate my shorter hair," she said, leaning in to rest her head against his neck. "If it was longer it would be in your face now." He made some sort of agreeing noise, but his mind was blanking on a response. "And it would get in my way when I did this," she said, lifting her face to his until their lips were only a centimeter apart. She hesitated, the human fear of rejection suddenly dawning on her, and began to pull away, but Shawn leaned forward, pushing his lips against hers softly. Her eyes fluttered closed, and her hands found their way into his newly shortened hair, pulling him closer. His hands tightened around her hips, pulling her in as they continued to kiss. Eventually, they needed to breathe, and they pulled apart to look at each other for a moment.

"Your shorter hair is very nice," he said at last, making her chuckle. She turned to flip the light off and walk through the doorway into the hall. "Where are you going?" He asked, catching up with her.

"To bed," she said, then she smiled at him over her shoulder. "Are you coming?" He didn't waste time with a response, just followed her into the room they had been sharing out of habit.

* * *

"My real name is Evelyn Reynolds," she said, her head resting on his shoulder as they laid in bed. His arm was falling asleep by then, but he didn't complain because he was able to wrap it around her, finally.

"Evelyn," he repeated. "I like it better than Louise," he added, and she raised the hand that had been resting on his stomach to smack him lightly.

"The people I grew up with think that I belong to then," she continued, and he could almost hear the fear in her voice. "They want me to go back and live with them and do anything they say."

"Is that why you ran away?" He asked and he felt her nod against his shoulder. He knew there was probably a little more to the story, to make her sound afraid when she so rarely showed any serious emotions at all.

"My dad was over-controlling," Shawn said, feeling content to share, since she had done so. "He raised me to be a cop and use my memory the right way, and I made one mistake, and he arrested me for it. I probably would have hated being a cop anyway, but I hated that he took that chance away from me."

"What did you do?" She asked softly, drawing random patterns on his chest now with her fingers.

"I stole a car, to impress a girl," he said, chuckling a little. "It was a dare, and we were going to put it back." She patted his chest reassuringly.

"So you ran away because you didn't want to live with him anymore?" She asked.

"No, I left because I hate him, and I hate Santa Barbara, and I wanted to travel and meet new people," he said, tensing a little. He didn't like to think of what he had done as running away, though he knew thats what it was. She smoothed her hand down his chest until he relaxed again.

"So where are we going next?" She asked, suppressing a yawn.

"Do you have a passport?" He asked. She nodded against him. "I've always wanted to see South America. Maybe Brazil?" He said it like a question, a little hesitantly, not sure if she would be willing to follow him out of the country. She smiled into his shoulder, knowing what he was nervous about but not really sure how to tell him that she would follow him practically anywhere.

"I speak Spanish, Portuguese, and French," she settled on after a few seconds of silence. He chuckled.

"I'll take that as a yes then," he said, and she laughed and nodded into his shoulder again, cuddling closer to him as his arm around her shoulders tightened. His hand drew a burning line down her side, making her shiver a little. "After we explore all of South America, we should go to Europe. I've always wanted to see Paris."

"You sound like a teenage girl," she said, but her voice came out a little breathless. She had only been traveling with him for five months, and he was talking as though they would travel for years. She wanted that more than anything, but he didn't know about her past, and she really should tell him if she wanted to stay with him. "If we go to Europe, what will you do with your bike?"

"Store it somewhere," he said, and she could feel him shrug. They were both quiet for a few minutes.

"I want to go to Ireland," she finally said. It was the first suggestion she had made about where they went, usually she left it to Shawn.

"Any particular reason?" He asked, his hand idly running through her messed up hair.

"I've always heard it was beautiful there," she said simply. He nodded.

"Then we will go to Ireland," he said, and she replied by rolling over so she was above him. He was grinning as she kissed him again.

* * *

"Why are you buying that?" Shawn asked as they stocked up at a Gas station in town. They were on their way out, heading south towards Chicago.

"For the memories," Evelyn said, tucking the post card in between the two bottles of water she was also carrying towards the counter. It wasn't a pretty landscape one, but rather one that just said Milwaukee WI over a picture of the city skyline.

"You don't need that to remember," he accused.

"No, but I have one from every town we've stopped in for longer than a day and I like them," she said, setting the things down in front of the cashier. Shawn waited until they were both outside to return to the conversation. They had decided months ago that, rather then steal things they needed, it was easier to find a casino when they needed money. Shawn never lost, and winning the money felt better to both of them than stealing it. They paid for most of the things they used, excluding the use of the rich couples mansion they had just left.

"Your backpack is going to get heavy carrying around all those post cards," Shawn said, reaching out to ruffle her short hair as he had been doing several times a day since it had been cut. She shook her head to get the hair back into its place.

"Not since I ditched the tent and sleeping bag," she said, nodding to the back of the bike where the mentioned items had been secured with ropes and a little bit of duct tape. "Here, I bought you one too," she said, holding out a postcard, already with a stamp.

"Why?" He asked, taking it from her and flipping it over. It was a picture of Lake Michigan and part of the city at night.

"You sometimes buy them to send home, I've seen you do it, and I thought Milwaukee was special enough to have it's own postcard home," she said, giving him a small smile.

"I send them to my dad and my best friend back home," Shawn admitted. She had seen some of the ones he had sent to his father. Most of them just said things like 'glad I'm here and not there,' or 'Glad you aren't here'. The ones to his friend Gus were always more cordial, usually saying 'miss you buddy,' or 'I think you'd like it here.'

"Well do whatever you want with this one," she said, waving her hand toward the card. He grinned at her and caught her wrist, pulling her in to him, and planted a kiss on her mouth. She pulled away grinning. "I'll buy you things more often if this is my thanks."

"I think I'll keep this one," he said, tucking it into his own backpack, then putting it into the space under his seat. She grinned, and waited for him to take his seat before she slipped on her newly acquired helmet and shouldered her backpack, then she climbed on behind him. They had been all up and down the western side of the states, and they had agreed that morning that they wanted to see the rest of the east coast while it was still warm outside, then they would travel down towards Mexico. It would have made sense to visit Canada and Alaska while they were still in the area, but the days were going to start growing cold, and neither of them wanted to try riding a motorcycle through the snow. Those places would have to wait.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: July 3, 2010

It had been long enough since the visit of the strange woman that the four who had met her had nearly forgotten why she had come. Well, three of them had anyway. Shawn didn't forget. He hadn't gathered up the courage to talk to her again, though after thinking about their parting fight for the last month and a half, he realized now that he did regret the way he had acted. He wasn't sure where she had gone, but if he was right about her attitude towards him, she hadn't gone too far. Shawn had spent the morning in the Psych office, playing video games and beating all of Gus's high scores. Gus was at his other job for the whole day, and he had told Shawn just that morning that he wouldn't leave for anything less than a solid case that was higher profile than minor theft, as their case last week had been. Since Lassiter did his best to keep the two out of any major cases, Shawn doubted he would have an excuse to call Gus. Especially since it usually took him a couple days to convince the chief that he was needed to solve a case and there hadn't been anything interesting on the scanner that was currently buzzing quietly in the corner of the office.

They came in through the front door, which is why Shawn wasn't immediately on guard. He heard the door open and close but he was almost to the end of the level, so he didn't turn around right away, though a small part of his mind was immediately suspicious when no one called out a tentative greeting, like any new customer might have done. He didn't hear any steps behind him either, but when the video game hit a 'check point' he paused and turned around, only to feel a sharp pain in the back of his head, then he saw the floor rushing toward him as he fell, but he was out before he hit it.

There were three men in the office, all dressed in clothing that would blend in on the boardwalk outside, and none of them would have stuck out at first glance. All three had dark hair, cut at varying lengths, and none of them carried a weapon or a bag of any kind. They didn't need to talk as they went around the place, closing the blinds and locking the front door. They made sure to flip the sign in front to 'closed' and they turned off the game system and tv, then took the cell phone visible on top of one of the desks and the motorcycle helmet sitting by the front door. One of the men found the keys in Shawn's pocket and tossed it to another guy, who left through the back door, taking the helmet with him, while the first guy tied Shawn's wrists together with a zip tie.

Five minutes later, three hard knocks came from the back door, and one of the two remaining guys went to open it, letting in two more average looking men. They waited until there were only a couple people in the distance to quickly and silently load Shawn into the back of the waiting mini van, one man on either side of the unconscious psychic, making it look like the three of them were just walking close together. They climbed into the back too, pulling the hatch closed behind them. One man climbed into the drivers seat as the last man made sure the back door to the office was closed and locked up, then jumped into the passengers seat, closing the door as the van began to move toward the highway.

They met up with the man who had taken the motorcycle about half an hour later on the outskirts of the city.

"You ditch the phone?" The one who had been in charge of their kidnapping job asked.

"Left it in a bathroom at a coffee shop near the docks," the man answered, his voice surprisingly high and upbeat for someone of his stature.

"He waking up," another one of the men called from his post near the back of the van. All four of the other men went over, in case their victim decided to be difficult.

"Should we knock him out again?" One of the men asked, and Shawn, just on the edges of consciousness, decided to call him Whiney, because his voice dragged a little at the end of each word.

"Please don't," Shawn said, opening his eyes. "I don't think I could deal with another headache." His voice was light and joking, though his head was pounding.

"Shut up," the guy in charge, which Shawn decided to call 'Grumpy', growled toward him. "You," he said, turning to another one of the guys. "Take the bike and ditch it somewhere."

"Be careful," Shawn called out after the guy had nodded. He hadn't spoken so Shawn hadn't been able to give him an apt nickname. "I just got it detailed and I don't want a scratch on it when I get it back."

"I said shut it," Grumpy said, growling toward the van.

"Actually, you said "Shut up", not "Shut it"," Shawn said, his voice a little condescending. He had been trying to work the zip tie loose behind his back, but it wasn't budging and he could feel it cutting into his skin.

"Gag him," Grumpy said to the man who had brought the bike in the first place.

"With what?" He said, and Shawn instantly named him 'Happy' because his voice was so light.

"I don't care, use anything," Grumpy said, walking off with the last, unnamed man. Happy searched around the van for a few minutes, eventually coming back with a slightly dirty towel. Shawn grimaced as it came into view.

"Don't you have something a little more sanitary?" Shawn asked, frowning in a way that made him seem just concerned, rather than afraid or nervous as anyone would have been in his situation. Happy just shrugged.

"I could use your shirt if you want, but I'd have to cut it off you and my hands aren't that steady," he said grinning as he forced the tightly twisted towel into Shawn's mouth. "And if you kept your mouth shut I wouldn't have to gag you, so it's your own fault." He finished tying the towel and left before Shawn could think of a way to respond. The towel had been tied tightly, but the pressure of it released a little of the pain in the back of Shawn's head where he had been hit, which in turn helped him think a little clearer. Judging by the sun, which he could see through the still open hatch on the van, he hadn't been out too long, which meant that he still had at least four hours before Gus got off work and would realize he was gone. More if Gus stopped at home after work to change clothes as he often did. His dad would be at the station for a few hours yet, not that he would expect Shawn to be anywhere that day anyway. No, he couldn't count on help to escape. He wasn't sure if these were the men looking for Evelyn, but he didn't know who else would want to kidnap him since he wasn't working on any cases at the moment, and no one he had helped arrest had gotten out of jail recently. He squinted into the darkness of the van, caused by deeply tinted windows, trying to see something he could use to untie his hands. He couldn't try running just yet, he could see all four of the remaining men not that far from the van, and they were parked on what looked like a gravel parking lot. The closest trees he could see were at least thirty yards away and he could clearly see the outline of a gun against Grumpy's shirt, and another gun tucked into Whiney's waistband. But if he could just get this hands free, maybe next time they came near he could grab one of the guns. They hadn't bothered to bind his feet together.

Shawn spotted the edge of a CD among the things littering the floor of the van. There were also child's toys and a few old chips, making Shawn come to the conclusion that the van had been stolen, probably from a family that included a couple kids. If he could get to the CD, maybe he could break it and use the sharp edges to cut through the plastic tie on his wrists.

He had just barely come up with the plan when the four men started walking back towards the van again, two climbing in the back with Shawn while the other two took the front seats. His plan would have to wait until next time they stopped. Hopefully they would leave him unsupervised long enough for him to grab the CD.

* * *

Gus got through with his work almost an hour early, thanks to the fact that nearly the entire day had been 'Shawn interruption' free. He was in a good enough mood, in fact, that he decided he would swing by their favorite smoothie place and pick up Shawn's favorite, as a thanks for leaving Gus alone for so long.

When he got to the office, he was surprised to find it closed, the shades all down and the door locked. He unlocked the door, juggling the two smoothies in his free hand, then pushed the door open. The place was normal looking, if slightly dark from the lack of sunlight, but for some reason, Gus's skin began to crawl. He set the smoothies down and slowly made his way into the main room, picking up the baseball bat he kept by the door for such occasions.

The place was completely empty, and utterly normal, which made Gus feel like an idiot for a moment, but then his eye caught on the back door and he frowned, walking over to it. The shade over the small window in the door was drawn, which was probably the first time he had ever seen it down. And the door was locked, something that Shawn never did.

Gus opened it, looked around at the street, which held a few people walking around, but he didn't see anything unusual, so he turned to go back inside, only to turn back to the street with a frown. The street was mostly lined with warehouses and smaller businesses so there wasn't nearly as much traffic as the boardwalk out front. At first, he wasn't sure what had drawn his attention, but then he saw it again. There was a small oil stain on the ground near the door, as though someone had driven up onto the sidewalk and parked a car there for a bit. He knelt down by the dark mark, then rested a finger against the spot. Pulling it away he rubbed his fingers together as he stood. It was still wet, meaning that this had happened somewhat recently.

He pulled out his phone to call Shawn as he went back inside, locking the door behind him.

Shawn didn't answer the first three times, and Gus was about to hang up the fourth call when someone picked up the phone, but it certainly wasn't a familiar voice.

After a short conversation with the person, Gus determined that the phone had been found at a coffee shop a street over from the office.

Gus went to pick it up, frowning as he went. It wasn't like Shawn to forget his phone somewhere.

He didn't want to be overly paranoid, so he drove by Shawn's apartment before going to the station. Shawn was not to be seen at either place, and Gus was working himself up into a full panic as he walked to Juliet's desk.

"Hey Juliet," Gus said, keeping his voice even.

"Hey Gus," the woman said, looking up with a smile, then glancing around them. "Where's Shawn? I hope he's not off bothering Lassiter."

"I was hoping he was here with you actually," Gus began, then explained his afternoon adventure to her. Her face grew more and more concerned as he spoke.

"So Shawn is missing?" Juliet asked, halfway to her feet.

"I don't know, maybe," Gus said, unwilling to think of the worst case scenario.

"Were you guys working a case? Could it be someone from-" Juliet began, but Gus shook his head.

"We haven't had a case all week," he said, slumping down into a nearby chair.

"You don't think it's that girl, do you?" Juliet asked, lowering her voice.

"I don't know what else could have happened," Gus said, shrugging.

"Should we try to, um, talk to her?" Juliet asked, stumbling over the correct words. She really didn't want to call the woman. She had done a little bit of research into the name Shawn had given them, but she hadn't found anything at all, and it made her a little nervous, especially after what Shawn had said about her.

"Let's call Henry first," Gus suggested. "Maybe Shawn's just over there."

Juliet nodded, jumping at the alternative idea and picked up her phone. Gus watched the short conversation and frowned at Juliet's falling expression.

They stared at each other for a few moment after she hung up the phone.

"He's not technically missing until 24 hours have passed," Juliet said after a moment. "But I could put out a BOLO on his bike."

"Okay," Gus said, frowning. "Should we call Evelyn?"

"Lets give it a bit," Juliet said, shaking her head. "We don't even know for sure he's missing."

Gus nodded, and Juliet turned to go put out the BOLO. He hesitated for a moment after she had left, then pulled out Shawn's phone.

He opened a blank note to type out the words that he just barely remembered, but they were already on the page. He waited a moment, then finally brought himself to type a single word underneath the seemingly random sentence.

'Evelyn?' It was less than a second before the phone screen darkened momentarily.

'What?' Was the reply, and Gus flinched at the oddity of the situation.

'Shawn's missing.' He said, holding his breath for what seemed like a full minute when a response didn't come immediately.

'Tell me everything you know.' Came the typed response at last. He spent a few moment typing out everything, which was practically nothing at all.

'I'll be there in four hours.' was the only response to that.

Gus put the phone away, hoping that Juliet wouldn't be upset with the woman's appearance.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: January 1, 1997 - February 5, 1998

"I can't believe we are finally in Ireland!" Evelyn exclaimed, sweeping her arms wide as they climbed off the ship they had been traveling on for the last week. "I've always wanted to come here."

"Then you must have a whole list of things you want to do now," Shawn said, chuckling as he followed her from the docks up into the small town.

"Well, actually I never really thought it out past getting here," she said, grinning at him over her shoulder. Her hair had grown a lot in the last two years. It was almost six inches past her shoulders now, and she let it flow in the breeze from the ocean instead of tying it up as she usually did. Shawn hoisted his backpack further onto his shoulders and shook his head.

"Well what looks interesting?" He asked her as they walked past the various business windows.

"Anything," she said, laughing as they walked. "Let's become sheep herders and live on a farm."

"Alright," he said sarcastically. "You find one then."

"Okay, maybe not," she said, turning to walk backwards as she faced him, hands wrapped around her backpack straps. Her eyes were light with adventure and she looked much happier than she had been when Shawn had first picked her up two years ago. "How about bartenders?" She swept a hand towards the fourth bar they had passed.

"Sure," he said, nodding at her more realistic answer.

"You're actually going to get a job that's somewhat normal?" She asked, brows raising in surprise.

"Of course not," he said, laughing. "You can be a bartender, I'll be a…" he looked around, searching for something more interesting. "A cobbler." He said, pointing a shop across the street.

"You're going to fix shoes?" She asked skeptically. He frowned, adopting an expression that she had learned meant he was about to say something completely stupid.

"You mean a cobbler isn't someone who tastes cobblers?" He asked, and she shook her head, a small smile on her face.

"Idiot," she said, but her voice was soft with affection, and she grabbed hold of his hand as she turned back to walk forwards again.

True to his work, Shawn began working at the shoe shop, much to Evelyn's amusement. She did as she had said, and started working in one of the bars.

They stayed in the town for two months before moving on.

After they had explored as much of Ireland as she wanted, they went to the rest of Europe, staying the longest in Paris.

On their first night in the city, they met some college students at a party who traded lodging for stories of traveling and adventure, and of course beer.

The three students who shared the house spent a lot of time high or drunk, and they liked Shawn and Evelyn so much that they let them stay as long as they wanted, which to the pair was just over six months.

"Where are you going next?" Emaline, the beautiful french girl who owned the house asked. The five of them were sitting around the living room drinking. Evelyn, tucked into Shawn's side with his arm over her shoulders, looked up at him in question, indicating he could say whatever he wanted.

"China maybe?" He said, the words making a question. She smiled at him, snuggling into him further as the three girls chattered in on in French. Evelyn understood the conversation to be about a trip they had all taken together to Beijing before starting college. She translated for Shawn, as she had been doing since they had come here. He had picked up a lot of the language during their stay, but he still had difficulty following a native speaker when they talked quickly.

"Why China?" She asked as the three girls continued to chatter away. She felt him shrug.

"Why not China?" He asked, and she smiled, leaning her head back against his arm.

"Yes, the land of computers," she said. "Why not?"

He chuckled at that. Over the last almost three years he had definitely noticed that she knew her way around any computer, no matter what language the system used. He had see her do things that bordered on illegal, though he wasn't exactly sure what all the laws were in whatever country they were in at the time. They hadn't been back to the states since they had left for Mexico two years ago, and while he missed home a little bit, Shawn was excited to see how long this adventure would last.

"You shouldn't have any problems," he said, grinning. She rolled her eyes, and didn't let her worry show on her face.

She still hadn't told Shawn that what she could do ran deeper than a little talent with technology. There had been many times when she had thought about it, but she could never be sure who was listening, and while she trusted Shawn with her life, she knew he would be upset that she hadn't told him sooner, and she didn't know how to bring it up.

She also worried about using technology too much. What if they had people watching for someone like her? Where they still looking for her?

She hadn't been kept in a prison at the lab, but it was clear that she wasn't supposed to leave it. The two times before she had met Shawn that she had managed to get out of the security they had found her within a few weeks and brought her back.

These last three years had almost seemed like a dream to her. She couldn't believe she hadn't been found yet. Either they weren't looking, or they didn't expect her to leave the immediate area. That had been her mistake before, she hadn't gone farther than a few towns away, mostly because of her lack of transportation.

She sighed, closing her eyes against her growing headache.

Shawn's arm tightened around her shoulders, making her look up at him again. He smiled, and she returned the gesture automatically as his eyes bore into hers. She shivered as his hand traced up her arm.

"Tired?" He asked, and she nodded. They had been sleeping on a futon in the laundry room for the last six months. "Okay ladies," Shawn said in a louder, easy going voice. "We are going to hit the sack, see you in the morning."

The three girls giggled, they always said that they found his american phrases funny, and bid them goodnight in heavily accented English.

Shawn pulled her to her feet and led her back to their makeshift room, shutting the door behind them. He turned to her as the door clicked, blocking her way further into the room, and leaned down to kiss her. She was pinned between his body and the door, but she didn't complain or make any effort to get free, instead she wrapped her arms around his neck, hands disappearing into his hair as she kissed him back.

When they had first started sleeping together it had been a casual thing. Both of them treated it as a 'friends with benefits' situation, though they hadn't talked about it at all. They had both still hooked up with other people as they traveled.

As time wore on, again without talking about it, they stopped seeing other people and began acting more like an actual couple. It had been that way for at least the last year.

Before she knew it, she was pinned on the bed, his body supported above her on his elbows as his hands held both of hers over her head. He pulled back for a moment to look at her, his usual half smile gracing his lips, and his hair fell forwards a little, falling almost into his eyes.

She looked up at him, feeling her breath leave her as her pulse picked up, though neither of them had removed any clothes and this kind of intense making out had become a usual occurrence. She inhaled, her lips parting as her mind drew a blank, forgetting whatever she had meant to say just then. She closed her mouth, watching as his eyes flicked down at the movement.

"What?" He asked, one of the corners of his mouth turning up in a crooked grin.

"Nothing," she replied a moment later, leaning up to recapture his lips. He pulled back further, still holding her down, and her head fell into the pillow with a small huff. He chuckled.

"Tell me," he said, leaning down to breath the words into her ear. He kissed the spot behind her ear that always made her shiver, then began planting light kisses down her neck.

"I love you," she said, the words coming out in a breath, then she froze, feeling him stiffen above her for a moment before continuing his movements down her neck.

He didn't respond until they were laying in bed together later that night. She was curled up against him, using his shoulder for a pillow as he stroked a hand up and down her back in slow movements. She might have thought he was asleep but for the motions of his hand.

"I love you too, you know," he said so quietly that she almost thought she had imagined the words. She lifted her head to look down at him. He was smiling a little, but his face was completely serious. She searched his eyes for a moment, then grinned and tucked her head back into his neck as completely contentment and happiness flooded her body.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: July 4, 2007

Gus had reluctantly gone home from the station around ten when Juliet had looked at him with helpless eyes saying that there wasn't anything more they could do till 24 hours had passed.

Shawn's bike had been found half an hour previously in a grocery store parking lot ten miles south of Santa Barbara. His wallet and keys were both in the storage hatch under the seat.

Gus paced around his living room, knowing there was no use in calling Shawn's phone since it was sitting on Gus's dining table. He felt useless. And a little lost. Shawn was his best friend and had gotten him out of countless dangerous situations with very little damage, and now Gus was stuck actionless at home while Shawn was off who knows where.

He forced himself to go to bed, knowing that if he didn't, he would be tired tomorrow when they actually could start looking for Shawn.

Evelyn got into town just after midnight, just when she had said she would be. She had gone south, hiding out in Mexico for the last five weeks. She had purposefully left a trail, hoping that if it looked like she was heading south, they would leave Shawn and the others alone.

She knew it was a hopeless effort two weeks after leaving when she woke up to find a manila envelope outside her hotel doorway. No one she asked had seen anyone leave it.

When she opened it in the privacy of her room, she had nearly lost her motivation to run. There were ten pictures, each one progressively worse, in her opinion.

The girl in the pictures was named Lacey. Evelyn had lived with her for nearly a year in London after Shawn had left. Lacey had been patient and understanding, and she had helped Evelyn recover a little from the hole that Shawn had left in her chest.

The last picture was of a cold, lifeless body, empty blue eyes staring at nothing. Evelyn crumpled it in her hand, finally giving in to the tears that had been threatening all morning.

She had moved on from the city immediately, but she stayed within an easy day's drive to Santa Barbara, wanting to be nearby if the worst happened but hoping desperately that she wouldn't be needed.

Santa Barbara had a thriving night life, and as she drove along various streets, driving towards Shawn's apartment, she was glad she had picked a dark, nondescript car when leaving Tijuana.

She had swapped the cars plates with a nearly identical, though much older, model of the same car in a repair yard she had come across on the drive. She knew it would be quite a while before anyone realized the mistake, and maybe when this whole thing was over she could return the car, and the plates. If she wasn't put in jail, or murdered, first.

Shawn's apartment was easy to break into. It didn't have a security system, and the lock was old. She opened it with a bobby pin. It was empty, as she knew it would be. She used his shower, and helped herself to some of his food, knowing he would be furious about it later. When she was clean and clothed in black jeans, a dark blue tank top, and her favorite black leather jacket over it, she settled into his desk chair, pulling a laptop out of her bag. She didn't have to use a computer, but it made her head ache less than using the chip in her mind to search.

She spent almost an hour, hacking into the security systems of the businesses surrounding the Psych office where Gus was sure Shawn had been taken from, though there was no proof.

She grew increasingly more frustrated when none of the camera's showed anything she could use. Most camera's were facing cash registers and back doors.

She nearly slammed the computer shut, but one of the images caught her eye. She used her mouse pad to zoom in on it. Yes, there was something. Two men walking past a front window. The glare of the sun on the window blocked out one man's face, but the other one… she was sure she had seen him somewhere before. She never forgot a face.

She closed her eyes, leaning back in the chair to run through the last few months worth of faces, then farther than that as nothing stood out.

There. Right after the first pictures had been sent to her. He had been standing on the sidewalk outside the restaurant she had been working in at the time. He had only stood there for a few moments, but she remembered it clearly because she had been on edge from the pictures, and he'd had a scar on his chin in the shape of a fish hook, though more angular.

Her eyes narrowed at the picture of the man, she was sure it was the same one. There was a mark on his chin for sure, but the picture was too grainy to be sure of the shape.

She printed it out from Shawn's printer, then tucked it into her bag next to the pictures of Lacey that she couldn't bring herself to throw away.

She laced her shoes back up, picked up her backpack, and left the apartment, making sure to leave nothing behind her, as she was sure the place would be searched the next day.

It was very easy for her to find where Gus lived because he hadn't turned off Shawn's phone, and she had a connection to that in her mind already from when they had talked earlier. His security system took less than a second to circumvent, and she picked his door lock with a bobby pin, just as she had Shawn's.

The place was dark, and she could hear a light snoring from down a hallway. She closed the door and let her eyes adjust to the darkness. It was a nice apartment, with a very comfortable couch, which she thanked the stars for. It had been a very long time since she had slept more than an hour at a time. She sank into the couch, carefully setting her things down and taking off her shoes.

She curled up against the arm of the couch and, knowing that she would wake up at the slightest sound or change in surroundings, fell into a light sleep.

* * *

She woke to a faint movement of bedsprings, and listened sharply as Gus's feet hit the floor and led him to his bathroom.

She sat up quickly, straightening her clothes and making sure her hair was smoothed back into a messy bun. Then she waited patiently as he showered, dressed, and came out into the kitchen, flicking on the coffee maker. She crossed her legs, almost chuckling at his unobserving behavior. He still hadn't seen her.

She cleared her throat and he jumped, holding his empty coffee mug in front of him like a weapon. That she did smile at.

"Put that down before you hurt yourself," she said, getting to her feet.

"How did you get in here? My door was locked," he said, frowning at her, but relaxing all the same. She was short and small, and feminine even without the dress clothes she had worn last time they had met. Doubtless he assumed that he could overpower her if she attacked.

She held up the bobby pin that had been in her jeans pocket with a thin smile.

"Have you found anything about Shawn?" She asked, though she knew they hadn't. She had run through the various recent police searches while she waited for him to shower and there had been nothing more than the initial missing persons filing.

"We found his bike," Gus said, and she frowned.

"That wasn't in the police report," she said.

"How do you know?" He asked, frowning back at her.

"Voodoo magic," she said sarcastically, raising an eyebrow at him. "Where was the bike and what was with it?"

"A grocery store south of here," Gus said, shrugging. "His keys and wallet were both there too."

"Hm," she said, going back to her backpack to pull out her computer again. "What was the name of the grocery store?"

"I don't know," he said.

"Well find out," she said impatiently. He eyed her for a minute, then picked up his phone. After a short conversation with Juliet, he came back towards her.

"Von's Supermarket in Summerland," he said, leaning over her shoulder slightly to watch her type, though he didn't understand anything she was doing. Within moments, the security images from said grocery store were playing on fast forward on the screen.

Evelyn watched intently, eyes narrowed, until she suddenly clicked to stop the stream of images, then clicked again to let it play slowly.

A man, maybe a little under six feet, rode into the parking lot on a motorcycle, parked it in the farthest row from the building, then lifted the seat to toss something under it. He waited maybe ten minutes before another car pulled up to him. He climbed in, shut the door, and they disappeared.

"Great, that doesn't help at all," Gus said, sighing as he stood.

"Au contrair," she said, her voice holding a smile. She typed and clicked a few more times until another image appeared on the screen.

"What is that?" Gus asked, leaning closer again.

"Traffic camera's for the area around the time the bike was dropped," she replied, clicking through the images. "Maybe we'll get lucky and find- there."

"She zoomed in on the image of a black car, the same one they had seen moments ago in the parking lot.

"That can't be right," Gus said, scowling as he leaned forward. "They are heading back into Santa Barbara."

"Which means that the bike was left where it was to throw us off the trail," she said, her voice impatient. She connected her computer to Gus's wireless printer, taking a screenshot of the car. The plate was only partly legible.

She took the picture, putting it into her bag with the other one, then slipped the computer back into the backpack as well.

"Let's go to the station," she said at last, her shoes back on. "But first, may I use your restroom?"

"You broke into my house but you are asking permission to use the bathroom?" He asked, shaking his head disbelievingly. "It's down the hall."

"Thanks," she said, giving him a smile, though it had no feeling behind it. It was a lot easier for her to be relaxed here than it was at the station. Being surrounded by police made her feel confined and nervous.

They were at the station half an hour later, after a short argument about which car they were taking. She refused to get into the blue monstrosity he owned, and after she glared at him for nearly a minute, he caved and climbed into her car. She didn't bother mentioning it was stolen.

She could easily see why Shawn was friends with this man. He was uptight at times, and she knew Shawn would find a thrill in the challenge of getting his friend to loosen up a bit. And he was kind. He hadn't thrown a fit about her being in his apartment at all. He had even given her a cup of coffee after her short bathroom break.

"Um, so, Juliet specifically told me not to call you," Gus admitted as they walked up the steps of the station. "So could you not mention that please?"

"What do you suggest I say to explain my presence?" She asked, raising a brow at him, though he couldn't see it as he was walking slightly in front of her.

"Voodoo magic?" He suggested, repeating her words from earlier in a slightly comical tone. She gave one short laugh, then fell silent and followed him into the station.

"Gus!" A voice called, and they both turned to watch the blonde woman approach them. She grew noticeably less happy as she spotted Evelyn.

"Hello," Evelyn said politely as Juliet crossed her arms over her chest.

"Hi," the blonde said shortly, then glared at Gus.

"He didn't call me," Evelyn said, drawing those blue eyes back to her. "I've been around, and I knew about Shawn when the report was filed." Juliet's eyes narrowed, though technically nothing Evelyn had said had been a lie. Gus had texted, of sorts, not called, and she had been sort of nearby, and the report was one of the first things she had checked when Gus had first told her. At the mention of Shawn, Juliet's face softened a little.

"We don't really have anything new," she said, sounding regretful. "The chief said we can start searching now even though it hasn't been a full day. There's some cops at his apartment now, and some at the Psych office."

"We found something too," Gus said. "Can we use the conference room again?" Evelyn glared at him. She wasn't sure if she wanted to tell the cops everything yet. She didn't really trust in their ability to do anything useful.

"Yeah," Juliet said, sighing. "I'll get Carlton, he's lead on the case."

Gus led Evelyn to the same room they had used before, and she plopped down into the same chair, feeling a headache growing.

Ten minutes later, the two cops were sitting across the table from her and Gus. She pulled out the two photos she had printed, along with the envelop of Lacey's pictures, but she only slid the two across the table.

"That car is the one that picked up the guy who dropped the bike in the parking lot," she said. "And that guy… I've seen him before. About four months ago, when the first pictures came. I don't know for sure he's involved, but why else would he be here when I had last seen him in Toronto?"

"Are you sure it's the same person you saw?" Juliet asked, frowning at the picture.

"About 90% sure," she said, leaning back in her chair.

"Where did you get these pictures?" Lassiter asked, his eyes narrowing into a suspicious glare.

"One is from a traffic camera near the grocery store in Summerland, the other was from a restaurant security camera. I'm not sure which one exactly, but it's on the boardwalk near the Psych office," she said.

"And how did you get access to those?" He asked, his voice clearly disapproving.

"A monkey could have hacked the security system, and traffic camera feed is hardly the most difficult thing to find," she said, rolling her eyes. "Can we please focus on finding Shawn instead of interrogating me?"

"I'm not so sure that you aren't involved in this," Lassiter said, leaning forward a little.

"Of course I'm involved in this," she said, her voice losing it's calm demeanor. "This is all happening because of me."

"How do you suggest we go about finding Shawn? We have no leads," Juliet said, stopping the argument before it could really start. Evelyn sighed again.

"I think they will contact me," she said, frowning as she rubbed her temples.

"Why would they do that?" Lassiter asked, his tone biting.

"Because they are running out of people I care about to kill off," she snapped back at him.

"What do you mean?" Juliet asked, frowning.

"They killed my last neighbor because I occasionally talked to him. The day after I left here last time, a fire burnt down a hostel I stayed at for four months in Madrid, killing the woman who ran it. A week after that, a girl I stayed with briefly in Sydney was in a car crash and killed on sight. Two weeks ago I got these," she said, tossing the envelope at them, pausing to clear her throat against the angry regret that swelled up in her. If there were anyone besides Shawn that she had ever loved, it had been Lacey. The two cops flipped through the photos. "Five days ago a man I befriended in Brazil was found hanging in his home, ruled as suicide. Yesterday Shawn disappeared."

"Who is this girl?" Lassiter asked, adopting a formal, cop voice.

"Her name is Lacey,"Evelyn said, her voice softening, though she refused to look at the pictures again. "Lacey Miller. She lived in London. She worked as a photographer, and she had a little sister who's only eight to look after because their parents died in a car accident six years ago." Evelyn briefly wondered what would happen to the little girl now, but she shoved that out of her mind.

"Who was she to you?" Lassiter asked, scribbling on a small notepad. Evelyn wasn't sure when this had turned into a questioning.

"We… dated briefly," she said, shrugging. "About four years ago."

"And have you had any contact with her, or with Shawn, recently?" He asked.

"I… sort of," she said. "I emailed Shawn every couple months."

"About what?" Juliet asked, though Evelyn wasn't sure her curiosity was purely professional.

"Just a city name," she said, smiling a little. "He never replied."

"A city name?" Juliet asked, confused.

"Yes," she said. "The last four city names were what he would have to type in to get ahold of me. He never did though. The first time we talked since he left was when I was here last."

"So you have no idea where he is now?" Lassiter asked, drawing the topic back to where it should be.

"If I did I wouldn't be here," she said, anger returning in an instant. "And the only reason I'm wasting time answering these stupid questions is because I don't know where he is yet. Don't be mistaken; I don't need you at all to get Shawn back."

The room was silent for nearly half a minute as Evelyn held Lassiter's glare, returning it with one of equal strength.

"Sooo," Juliet said, breaking the tension. "Is that the only time you've seen this man? When the first pictures were left?"

"Yes," Evelyn answered, looking away from their glaring contest. She hesitated, then frowned. "Actually, give me a moment." She closed her eyes, frowning in concentration as she very quickly ran backwards through her memories of the last five years or so. She had an itching feeling in the back of her mind that he was familiar from some other time in her life. She was silent for over a full minutes, then she gasped quietly. "He was in South Africa," she started, her eyes still closed as she watched the memory replay itself in her minds eye. "Yes, he has the same scar," she ran a finger over her chin to mimic the placement. "He was with the diamond miners when they came in for the night."

"When was this?" Juliet asked, though she had no idea what the girl was talking about.

"Just over six years ago…" Evelyn said, then she had a sudden realization and opened her eyes in horror. "They've been watching me for…" She trailed off, trying to think back over the last 15 years that she had considered herself free. Her face fell as she thought. No, it wasn't always the same person, but now that she was focusing on it, there were quite a few faces, two dozen or so, that she could pin in multiple different cities and countries she had been in. "Oh my god."

"What? What is it?" Gus asked, his voice rising a little in panic. He must have thought she had some knowledge about Shawn. She shook her head.

"I just figured something out is all, it's unrelated," she said, keeping her voice even. They had been following her since she ran away. She had never been free. They were just waiting until they needed her to force her to come back. They had marked anyone she had spent time with over her travels. She frowned. "I need to make a few calls. Can I please borrow a phone?"

"Don't you have one?" Juliet asked, curious.

"No," Evelyn said, her voice a little bitter. "Too easy to track, not that it mattered."

"Here," Gus said, handing over his phone. Of the three, he was the one most open to accepting help from the girl.

"Can I make long distance calls?" Evelyn asked. If it had been one of the cops, she wouldn't have cared about the charges, but Gus was nice, and he was Shawn's friend, so she felt a little guilty.

"Yes," he said. She smiled, and walked to the other side of the room to dial. After a brief conversation in french, she hung up and dialed again, then after another conversation, this one in rushed Italian, she came back to the table, feeling a little better. They hadn't killed the three french girls Shawn and her had stayed with in Paris. They also hadn't gotten to the two guys they had stayed with in Italy for just under six months after their trip to China.

"They haven't killed everyone I've been in contact with," she said, answering their curious looks. She let a bit of relief wash over her as she resumed her seat beside Gus, handing him his phone back. There had been no evidence that all those other deaths of people she had known had been on purpose, but she had known the same people were behind it. She didn't like being responsible for all those deaths. Maybe if she had never run away, they would all be alive. She shook her head at herself. If they wanted something from her that she wasn't willing to give, they would have found other ways to get it from her.

The group sat in silence for a moment before someones phone began to ring, breaking the silence. It was a few seconds before she realize it was Shawn's phone, that she had tucked into her pocket earlier that day. She pulled it out and stared at it for a moment. The incoming number was blocked. She put it on speaker phone and answered it, gesturing to the others that they shouldn't speak.

"Shawn Spencer's phone," she said, her voice even.

"Eve," the voice came, and she nearly groaned in relief. She hadn't been so sure that they wouldn't just kill him and attempt to force her to do what they wanted by crushing her spirit.

"Shawn," she responded, keeping her voice unexcited though Juliet hurried off, probably to try to track the call. Evelyn was one step ahead of her, tracking it in her mind, following the signal. "Are you okay?"

"Peachy," he replied, his tone joking, but she could hear the strain. "You remember in Milwaukee when I cut your hair?"

"Yes Shawn," she said, almost smiling at the memory.

"We should have become sheep herders and lived on a farm," he said, and she frowned at that. That had been an entirely other conversation in a completely different country. He must have been trying to tell her something.

"Alright," she said, mimicking his words from all those years ago. "You go find one."

He chuckled over the phone and then there was a sharp sound and an inhale of breath.

"Okay, get to the point," Shawn said, but it didn't sound like he was talking to her. "If you would like to see your psychic alive again, meet us on the top of the ocean view bluff tomorrow at dawn. Alone. If we see any cops, the psychic dies." The words were stiff, as though he was reading them from a paper. "Don't come Eve, I'm fine and I'll get out-" the phone cut off just as Juliet came back into the room shaking her head.

"We couldn't get a trace," she said.

"That's fine, I know the general area," Evelyn said, pulling her computer from her bag.

"Did you understand what he was saying?" Gus asked, frowning. "He had to have been speaking in code right?"

"Yes," she said, pulling up a map of the countryside north of the city. "They didn't go far, that call was from a payphone outside a warehouse in Santa Maria. They won't stay there though. Are there any large lakes in the area?"

"Two," Lassiter said, finally joining the conversation.

"They will be in an abandoned shoe store. Or a warehouse used to store shoes," she said, turning the computer towards the two cops. She had marked the phone they had used.

"How could you possibly know that?" Lassiter asked, his eyes narrowing back into their usual glare.

"Shawn just told me," she said, waving a hand at the phone. "In Milwaukee the place we stayed at when he cut my hair was right on the lake," she explained. "In Ireland, which was where we had a brief conversation about sheep herding, he worked for two months as a cobbler."

"What should we do about the meeting?" Juliet asked, shaking her head. She would never be able to understand Shawn's code as well as Gus, and now Evelyn, did. "Obviously you can't go."

"No one's going," Evelyn said. "If they see cops, Shawn dies. I'm not taking that risk." It was a slight lie. She would go, of course she would. It was the only possible way she would be able to get near where they were keeping Shawn.

"We can go look around the warehouses in Santa Maria," Juliet said tentatively.

"Please don't do that," Evelyn said, frowning in thought.

"Why not?" Juliet asked, taken aback.

"Because now we know where they are. If you, or any other cops, go poking around there, they'll move somewhere else and then we will have no idea where they are. I doubt they will let Shawn call again," Evelyn said, packing her backpack and all the pictures she had brought back into her backpack.

Juliet nodded at the logic, though she didn't much like that it was coming from a civilian. She frowned when Evelyn stood, swinging her backpack over her shoulder.

"Where are you going?" She asked, looking the girl over.

"If I leave town they will think I'm running and they'll follow me. No one else here will get hurt and you will have the entire night to come up with a way to rescue Shawn," she said, heading to the door.

"So that's it?" Gus asked, his voice angry. "Shawn depends on you for help and you are running away?"

"I told you where they are," Evelyn said, her voice cold. "I'm not a cop, what do you expect me to do that I haven't already done?"

"Stay and help!" Gus argued back, his voice incredulous now. He didn't understand how someone who had spent ten years with Shawn could walk away from him when he needed help.

"I helped," she said, gesturing to the table where she had left the two photographs of the people probably responsible. "I'm not a magician, or a cop, or even anyone useful. I gave you everything you need, use it."

She was out the door before any of them could call her back again. In the parking lot she took a moment to fish a small pocket knife out of her backpack, along with three more bobby pins, which she stuck into her hair. She dropped the pack into the back seat of a blue unmarked cruiser parked in the space that said it was reserved for the head detective.

She drove the stolen car to the top of the bluff they had told her to meet them at, parked it, and left the key on the front seat, then got out to wait.

If they had said dawn, they would come to stake the place out hours before that to make sure there were no traps or cops hiding. It's what she would have done in their position.

She leaned against the safety handrail and looked out over the ocean as the sun reached its peak in the sky and waited.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: December 16, 2004

"Shawn?" Evelyn asked carefully.

They had been in the Bahama's for the last three months. Shawn had been working as a SCUBA dive instructor, though where he had gotten a license for that, Evelyn wasn't sure. They had talked about where they were going to go next. Shawn wanted to go back to America. Evelyn was nervous about doing that, which Shawn didn't understand at all, and she thought that since they had been together for about ten years now, maybe he wouldn't run screaming if she told him about herself at last.

"Eve?" He asked in the same tone, smiling at her as he rolled his head to face her. They were lounging on a bed in a fancy hotel resort. They had even payed for the experience for once, instead of just waiting till the room was empty and then sneaking in.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" She asked, and there must have been something in her voice, because he sat up, clicking off the tv. "I have something important to say, and I really should have told you a long time ago, but I didn't know how to bring it up, and I was scared of what you would think."

He frowned, recognizing the seriousness of the situation. Evelyn hardly ever spoke about her emotions, and he didn't think she had ever said she was scared before, not since he had known her.

"When you picked me up in Nevada all those years ago, I was running away from some people," she began. He nodded. She had told him this before, in less words. "Up until I was five years old, I lived in an orphanage in Michigan. I don't know who my parent's were or why I was there. When I was five, a man came to the orphanage and took ten of us with him. I'm not sure what story he gave to the matron. All of us were young, I was the second oldest one, at five and a half. We got on a plane and weren't told anything about where we were going or who the people in charge were.

The took us to a lab, gave us rooms, let us shower, gave us nice clothes and toys. I didn't realize until much later that the others disappeared, we weren't allowed to see each other outside of meal times. And we weren't the only kids there. There were at least a hundred. All of them were under ten. All of them were orphans." Her voice had been soft till now, quiet, as though if she whispered, the words wouldn't be true. "They always use orphans because they don't have anyone to come looking for them if something goes wrong," her voice was bitter, her fists clenched into fists and she fell silent for a moment, remembering.

"Go on," Shawn urged her, frowning as he listened to her story.

"They put chips in our heads, tried to make us think like computers. Most of the kids died. Brains aren't wired to think like computers," she said, her voice growing distant now. She didn't want to think too hard about the past. She could still remember every terrified face that had been on the plane and in the labs. "My group had ten, I'm the only one alive now. I think it's because my brain was already sort of made like a computer, I could already remember everything. Maybe it's because they got that testing model right, our group lived the longest out of any of the others."

"You have a chip… in your head?" Shawn asked after several minutes of silence.

"Yes," she said, nodding. "You've seen what I can do with computers and electronics. It's a bit more than a talent. Area 51, at least I'm pretty sure that's where I was, is just a network of privately funded research centers. I don't know exactly what they do there, it's the one place who's computer system I can't hack into, I've tried. I don't know what they were trying to accomplish with the computer chips in the brain, they never said and it wasn't at the top of my priority list when I was trying to get out."

"So all those time's you've broken us into hotel rooms?" Shawn asked, his voice not giving away any of his emotions.

"That's easy, really. It's one of the first things I learned the first time I ran away," Evelyn said. "I just have to redirect a little spark of electricity to the right circuit."

"I've known you for ten years," Shawn said, his voice holding an undertone of anger. Evelyn flinched. "Why haven't you told me this before?"

"It's not like you've told me everything about your life, why should I be expected to share when you won't?" She asked, hiding her feelings behind anger.

"I've told you everything important," Shawn said, getting to his feet to argue. She got up on the other side of the bed.

"Well this isn't really important anymore, it's just something from my past," she said, trying to keep her voice from rising.

"Isn't important?" Shawn repeated, glaring at her. "You just said that you ran away from the government and you have a computer chip in your head that gives you some freaky robot power over electronics. How is that not important?"

"It does't change anything," Evelyn said, her voice close to a snarl now. "Except now you know."

"This is a huge secret," Shawn said, his voice lowering in volume, though it was still sharp. "How am I supposed to trust you when you've practically lied to me for ten years?"

"I-" She opened her mouth to respond, but she didn't know what to say. He was right, she had lied to him. She wouldn't trust him anymore if the situation was reversed. "I love you."

"Clearly you don't," he said. "Or you would have told me before this."

They were both silent for a few moments.

"I need to take a walk," Shawn said, heading to the door. "I need to think for a while."

Evelyn cried herself to sleep that night. Maybe that was why she never heard Shawn come back to get his backpack hours later.

He was gone by morning. She waited a full month, hoping that he would come back to the area. After that she gave up and left. She could guess where he had gone, and she wanted to be on the other side of the world from him, so she bought a plane ticket to London.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine: July 5, 2010

The van pulled up just after midnight. Evelyn had been sitting in her car for hours, napping, but she woke up at the crunch of gravel and climbed out of her car. A man, not the one with the scar that she had recognized, but one who was equally familiar, she had probably seen him in other cities in the past.

They looked at each other for a moment, then he gestured for her to get into the passenger's seat. She did so, silently. She very carefully dropped Shawn's cell phone into the side pocket of the door, using the shutting of said door to mask the sound of it falling. The man turned the van around, getting back on the freeway, heading north.

"Where are we going?" Evelyn asked after nearly half an hour. She knew the general place, but she wanted to get the guy talking, maybe he would mistakenly tell her something useful.

"You'll see when we get there," he said, and she was surprised by his upbeat, happy tone.

"What is it you all want me to do, exactly?" She had never asked, not that she had gotten the opportunity to do so before now.

"Oh, just a bit of computer work," the happy man said. "The boss'll explain it to ya."

"Where's Shawn?" She asked.

"He's safe, somewhere he won't be found," the man said. "Don't worry, you'll see your little boyfriend soon. I've got to say, that's some impressive psychic mumbo jumbo he does."

"Mm," she said simply, looking out the window at the dark landscape. She wasn't sure exactly why Shawn was pretending to be psychic. She had payed very little attention to much of his life after he left, thinking that maybe if she distanced herself from the past, it would be easier to move on.

They rode in silence again for another forty minutes or so, finally pulling to a stop outside a large warehouse. He got out, commanding her to stay put, and went to the large garage door, knocking on it. While he was gone, she took a moment to connect herself to Shawn's phone. She had already set it on silent, and now she sent a quick text to Gus's phone.

'Trace this phone. More info when I can.'

She knew it would likely be morning before he read it. Hopefully the phone would still be here when he did.

The happy man came back, grinning at her, then drove the van into the warehouse, the door shutting behind them casting them into temporary darkness.

"What is this?" A large man asked, gesturing to the van when the other man climbed out.

"She was there early," the happy man said, shrugging. "She came along without a fight. There weren't any cops around."

"The boss won't be back till morning," a third man said. "What should we do with her?"

"Lock her in the back," the large man decided.

The three of them all came over to her door, probably trying to make sure she didn't try anything funny. They searched her, emptying her pockets of the knife and a bobby pin, then they handcuffed her arms behind her back and led her towards the back area of the warehouse into what must have once been an office. As she had expected, the shelves she could see where full of shoe boxes, all covered with a thick layer of dust.

The room she was thrown into was dark and windowless. It took a while for her eyes to adjust, and when they did, she noticed a lump laying in one corner. She carefully maneuvered her hands under her legs so they were in front of her, then went about investigating the room.

The lump in the corner was Shawn, and judging by the knot on his head, he was unconscious by force not by choice. The rest of the room held a bucket and mop, a chair with a broken leg, several empty shoe boxes, and a rotting wooden shelf that reached up to the low ceiling. In a room they had passed she had heard laughing and talking, so there had to be at least four of them, in addition to the three that had brought her here, and the guy they called boss. She closed her eyes to send off another text to Gus.

'At least eight, probably more. Armed.'

She had seen the bulges of guns hidden under shirts on the three men, and she assumed the others probably had guns as well.

"Shawn," she said, walking over to him after her inspection of the room. "Shawn." She shook his shoulder and he groaned. She wished she had some water, the wound on the side of his face had bled and dried, she would have liked to clean it at least. "Come on Shawn, don't leave me to get out of this alone."

"Evie?" He asked, his voice cracking. Her heart gave a little stutter at the old nickname. She hadn't heard that in years.

"Come on," she said, nudging his shoulder again. She sat back, crossing her legs, and reached up into her hair to pull out a bobby pin. She bent it back with her teeth, then used the end of it to pick the locks on her handcuffs.

Shawn was silent for a while, and she nudged him again. She couldn't get the angle of the pin right to pop the locks on the cuffs and she was growing frustrated.

"Shawn, wake up," she said, shaking his shoulder again. She looked at the cuffs, then gritted her teeth, grabbing her left thumb in her right hand, she pulled until it popped, making her gasp a little.

With her thumb dislocated, she could easily slip out of the cuff, and she quickly straightened her now throbbing thumb, watching a bruise blossom across the side of her hand as she pushed it back into place. She released the lock on her other wrist, easily picking the lock with her free hand, then she released the locks on Shawn's cuffs, pulling them off. She put both pairs into her back pocket, then used her uninjured hand to slap Shawn lightly on the face.

"Come on Shawn, lets get out of here," she said softly, trying to pull him into a sitting position.

"Eve," he said again, his eyes halfway open as he finally came to. "What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"You told me exactly where you were, idiot," she said. "And they brought me right to you."

"You gave yourself over?" He asked, frowning at her. "Please tell me the cops are coming."

"Eventually maybe," she said, shaking her head. "Probably not for a while. We need to get you out of here okay?"

"Just me?" He said, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Yes," she said. "I need to find out what they want me to do, and I can't have you here for them to use against me. If I leave now, they will just keep going after people I care about. They'll kill you next time."

"You care about me?" He said, though his voice had taken on a teasing tone. "Aw, I'm flattered." She smacked his arm, then flinched as she remembered her thumb.

"Of course I care about you, idiot," she said, looking around the room again, trying to come up with a plan. There were vents in the ceiling. Maybe if they could move the shelf over a few feet, Shawn could climb up and get into one of them. The door had a deadbolt lock, so that route was out.

"You know, I kinda thought you didn't for a long time," Shawn was saying. She looked back at him, confused. "Care about me I mean."

"Why?" She asked after a moment.

"When I left you didn't try to get ahold of me," Shawn said, shrugging a little. He was looking down at his hands, rubbing his wrists to try to ease the ache of being cuffed for so long. "It's irrational, I know. I think I just got it in my head because I was angry."

"I emailed you," she protested, though she knew that wasn't what he met. It was true that she hadn't tried to go after him at all when he had left. She sighed. "I didn't think you wanted to talk to me anymore."

"I didn't," he said. "Not for a while."

"Are you still mad at me?" She asked, her voice small. She hated herself in that moment.

"No," he said. "I over reacted when you told me. I was just upset that you hadn't said anything sooner, though I think I understand now why you didn't." His voice was uncharacteristically serious.

"So… if we get out of here, will you respond to my emails once in a while?" She asked, her heart beating against her chest. She hadn't realized until this moment exactly how much she had missed him. He had been the only best friend she'd ever had, and even though she had tried to date other people, there was a part of her that had always been, and would always be, his.

"I'll try," he said, the seriousness dropping as he chuckled. "For now, lets get out of here. Any ideas?"

"There's an air vent up there," she said, waving a hand at the ceiling. "If we can move that shelf put a few feet you could climb up and get in it."

"You are coming too," he said, his voice adamant. "I'm not leaving without you."

"I have to stay," she said, shaking her head. "I've already given my reasons, you know I'm right."

"I know," he said, frowning as he got to his feet. "I just don't like it."

"I know," she repeated, smiling a little. "Come on, help me move this."

They went to the shelf, and within ten minutes it was in position under the vent. It was more difficult to climb up quietly. The shelves were rotted, and Shawn had to test each hold before putting weight on it. The vent posed another problem. The screws holding the cover in place were tightly wedged, though there were only two of them.

"I have bobby pins and loose handcuffs," Evelyn said, frowning as she peered around her.

"Give me your jacket," Shawn said, his voice soft, but carrying. "I'll use the zipper pull."

She shrugged it off, tossing it up to him. It took a while, and she watched the door nervously until he finally got the vent open and climbed inside it. She painstakingly climbed up the shelf after him, using the same foot holds he had used. He leaned his head out the vent, frowning.

"Are you coming after all?" He asked. She shook her head.

"I'm going to put the grate back on so they won't know how you got out right away," she said. "It'll give you more time to get out."

He looked at her for a moment, his familiar hazel eyes glinting in the darkness.

"Evelyn," he began, but she shook her head.

"Get going," she said, lifting the grate back into place with her good hand, using her hurt hand to try to twist the screws back into place. "Can you do me a favor when you get out?"

"Anything," Shawn's voice came from the now closed vent.

"If you can get into contact with Ewan O'Hara, can you tell him to give a message to Richard Ansari, he's the guy who was in charge of the lab I grew up in. Just tell him what happened."

"Sure," Shawn said, though his voice was confused. She couldn't blame him, she had spent her whole life running away from those people, and she was sure it was the same people keeping her here now. Richard had always been kind to the children though. Well, as kind as you could be when allowing human experiments that had a high mortality rate. She was sure that Ewan would have the right kind of contacts to find the man though, and maybe he would be able to find these people if they weren't sent by him.

"Eve," Shawn said a second later. "I'm sorry I left. I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"I shouldn't have yelled either," she said, a smile gracing her lips for a moment. "I should have handled the situation better."

"I could have tried harder too," Shawn said. She couldn't see his face, which she was glad for.

"Thanks for making my life amazing for ten years," she said, then began to climb down the shelf.

"Don't talk like we won't see each other again," Shawn said, his voice sad.

"We won't though," she said. "If I get out of here I'll have to run again. Unless you want to leave the life you've built here and come along, I won't see you again. If I don't get out of here… well."

"You would let me come with you again?" Shawn asked, confused.

"I would, but it will be different from last time," she said, reaching the floor. Her hand was throbbing again from the use she had put it through. "These people have been following me for years. We weren't careful enough. If I leave here, I'll go completely off the grid. Live in a tent in the middle of nowhere maybe. I can hunt for food and live near a river. Never see anyone again."

"That sounds nice," Shawn said, and she laughed.

"Liar," she said. "It would drive you crazy, you are too much of a people person."

"I could learn," he said, and her heart stuttered against her chest for a moment as she looks up at the vent.

"Shawn," she said, then shook hear head. It was a nice idea, something she would think about for a long time, but it wouldn't happen. "Go."

"Right," he said, and she heard a bit of scuffling. She slowly and quietly moved the shelf back to where it had been, then pushed a few piles of empty shoe boxes in front of it to hide the marks in the dust on the floor. Then she took more boxes, arranging them in the corner Shawn had been in, then draping a threadbare, dusty sheet over them. She sat herself against the wall, pulling out her handcuffs and, grudgingly, securing them around her wrists again.

Then she waited. She wasn't tired, thanks to her afternoon nap in her car, and she had little to occupy her mind in the room, so she closed her eyes to see what, if any, technology was in the building that she could use. There were a couple computers in a room across the hall, though they weren't turned on. Besides those, and the computer in the van engine, there was only Shawn's cell phone, and a few other phones in the pockets of the men across the hall.

Maybe she shouldn't wait for Shawn to escape and for herself to die to tell Richard what was happening. She wasn't sure what had made her think of him of all people, though he had spoken to her every say she had been at the lab. She had noticed that the others there listened to him, and she remembered wondering why someone with that much power would bother talking to the disposable test subjects.

She turned on one of the computers across the hall, listening closely through the door to make sure no one noticed.

She spent nearly a half an hour trying to decide what the email should say, then sent it, hoping that the protected, very restricted email address she had searched out for him was the right one to use.

Finally, she heard a commotion outside the room, and got up to sit by the door to hear better. It clicked open, and she scrambled to her feet as two guys came inside, grabbed her arms, and led her out, shutting the door again behind her. She noticed they hadn't locked it again. Maybe they had forgotten Shawn, or maybe they thought he was out well enough that he wouldn't try to escape.

As she was led across the hall to the room with the computers in it, she made a quick head count.

'At least twenty of them, all armed.' Was the next text she sent off to Gus, wondering if he had read them yet. Though maybe, if Shawn had managed to find a way back, they wouldn't bother coming to find her.

"Alright, here's what you are going to do for us," a large man said, coming to stand in front of her. His hand rested on the handle of a gun in his waistband, and he was chewing on a toothpick as he talked. She nearly rolled her eyes. Could he get any more stereotypical? "You are going to hack into the government database and get us the missile launch codes."

"What are you going to do with them?" She asked, her voice cracked from lack of water.

"Ransom them back to the government, sell them to some other country, whichever pays the most," the man said, and she frowned.

"What's in it for me?" She asked, her voice snarky. He whipped an arm up and backhanded her so quickly she didn't see it coming. She stumbled back into another man, who pushed her up again. She glared, trying to ignore the throbbing in her face.

"You keep your life," the man said. "And your boyfriend goes free."

"I don't believe you," she said, spitting blood onto the floor.

"I don't care what you believe," he said. "If not, we will torture your psychic, and you, after he dies."

"I refuse," she said, shaking her head at him. He grabbed her shoulders and forced her down into the chair, nodding at the other two men who had come with her.

"Get the other," he said. "Bring him."

They were gone for only a minute before she heard raised voices and shouts.

"He's gone!" One of them called. The large man glared at her and she couldn't help but send him a smirk. He growled.

"Find him," he bellowed back to the others. "In the mean time, I can deal with you."

He flicked open a small pocket knife, the same one they had taken from her pockets when she had first gotten here. He ran the flat side of the blade across her uninjured cheek, his face leering at her as he bent over her chair. Then he gripped her hair, ripping it out of it's bun to pull her head back as he picked up her still cuffed arms and pushed one sleeve up, then made a quick slash over her arm.

She let out a gasp, not having expected the move. He made three more after that, all shallow enough to avoid muscle damage, but deep enough to bleed over her jeans. He repeated the gestures on her other arm before releasing his hold on her hair.

"Any change of mind?" He asked. It took her a moment to call moisture into her dry mouth, but when she had it, she spit it into his face.

In response, he stamped a heavy, steel toed boot down onto her foot. She heard the bones snapping before she felt the pain, and then she couldn't help screaming.

"I'll leave you to consider," he said, stomping out of the room. There were two men standing outside the door and they stayed there when he slid between them. She could hear him growling at the other men, and some furious movements, then there was a loud bang, and more shouting.

She prayed that it wasn't Shawn. He'd had at least three hours head start, but she knew he was an idiot at times, and she wouldn't put it past him to come back to try to rescue her.

There was gunfire, and the large man came almost sprinting back into the room. He lifted her by the arm, his grip slipping in the blood that was still flowing from the cuts he had made.

"Let's go," he said, dragging her towards the back of the building. The two men from the door had come to follow him.

Without thinking about what she was doing, she lifted her hands, wrapping them around the man's arm, and pushed her energy into him, just like she did when using a computer from a distance. She felt more than saw him spasm, then drop. She whipped around, doing the same to the men behind her before they could draw their weapons. She ran to the office door, using a chair back and the door frame to keep her weight off her broken foot, and peeked around the frame before moving out into the hallway. Three men were standing between her and the warehouse main room, all of them firing steadily. She got up behind the one in the middle, shoving her energy into him. When he dropped, he knocked the other two off balance as well. She quickly shocked them, making sure they stayed down, and grabbed a gun from one of them while balancing on her good leg.

"Eve!" She heard Shawn's shout first, then the gunfire stopped and men in black uniforms swarmed in, cuffing men with their arms up, and fallen men with the same quick motions. She dropped the gun on the floor, slumping to the side. Now that the immediate danger had passed, her foot refused to hold any of her weight.

Shawn's arm wrapped around her shoulders before she could fall.

"There are more in back," she said, her voice no more than a whisper. Shawn called to someone else, then began to lead Evelyn out of the building. There were paramedics waiting outside, and three of them rushed around her, pushing Shawn away.

Within ten minutes, all the men still able to walk had been locked up in a swat team jail bus. The injured ones were looked over and treated, then sent away as well. Six of them were carried out in body bags.

She watched, her eyes wide in horror.

"Eve," Shawn said, his voice distant as his arm wrapped around her shoulders again. "It's alright, don't think about it."

He was using a handkerchief to wipe tears off her face as she turned to look at him again.

"I didn't mean to-" she started, but he cut her off by placing a hand over her mouth.

"I know," he said. "It's okay. No one blames you."

She leaned into him then, letting the tears come. She tucked her face into his shirt and he held her while she cried.

"Let's get back to the station," a gruff voice interrupted them a while later.

"I don't think that will be necessary, Detective," a deeper voice responded, and Evelyn stiffened against Shawn. She knew that voice, even after years of not hearing it. She was afraid to look up.

"Evelyn," the same voice called. It was reassuring, that voice, and she looked up into the familiar lined face of Richard Ansari. He was older than she remembered him, his hair much more grey than black now, and he had more creases around his eyes and mouth. He was holding a hand out to her.

"We need to debrief her before she goes anywhere else," the gruff voice said, and she now recognized it as Detective Lassiter.

"All of these men are under my custody now," Richard said. "They will be dealt with in Nevada."

"You can't just waltz in here and expect to-" Lassiter began, but was led away by someone else who spoke to him in an undertone. Evelyn briefly wondered what he was being told, but shook that thought away.

"Evelyn," Richard said again. "Let's go."

She tried to stand, her foot was encased in a makeshift cast so it made the task a little easier. She hung her head though, knowing where she was going now and that she would have no choice.

"Eve," Shawn said, gripping her arm lightly over the bandages placed there. "You don't have to go."

"Yes I do," Evelyn said. "I don't have a choice."

"Of course you do," Shawn said, frowning at the older man who was still waiting for her. "They can't keep you against your will."

"Shawn," she whispered, her voice breaking. She leaned up against him for a moment, pressing her lips against his in a chaste kiss. "Thanks for everything."

Then she turned and put her hand in Richard's still outstretched one and let him lead her away.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: November 10, 2010

"Alright Evelyn," Richard said, coming into the hospital room she had lived in for the last five months. "I think everything is in order. She beamed up at him from the bed, sitting up and swinging her feet over the side.

"Thank you so much," she said, finding her balance quickly. He handed her a bundle of casual clothing.

"I'm sorry that it all had to work out this way," he said, though his voice wan't the least bit regretful or sad. She didn't care though.

"It's alright," Evelyn said, smiling. "This is everything I've ever wanted."

Upon her return to the lab, Richard, a few other lab researchers, and Evelyn had sat down in a conference room and she had told them everything that had happened since she had last been here. She told them the things she could do, including the killing of six people, which she had never even meant to do.

The men that had blackmailed her had worked for the lab at one point. They had been assigned to watch her after she left, as she had suspected, but to her surprise, they were only supposed to watch her to make sure she wasn't doing anything really illegal with her abilities. Richard, who she now knew was in charge of the entire lab, not just her experiment, had meant to let her live her life unless she got into trouble.

They had then come up with a solution for her when she said she wanted nothing to do with anything at the lab anymore.

A month ago they had removed the chip from her brain. They had waited this long to make sure that there wouldn't be any complications with her body adjusting or with memory loss.

So far there hadn't been, and with each day that passed, she felt lighter, freer, and happier.

She was normal now, and they had promised to leave her alone. She had Richard's word that he would never try to contact her again, and no one would be watching her. She wasn't sure if she could put any kind of trust into them, but she didn't have any other option anyway so she chose to be optimistic.

"So when can I leave?" She asked when she had dressed in the clothes he had brought and gone back into her room.

"Any time you feel up to it," he said. "We have a car ready to take you to the airport, and from there we will pay for a ticket anywhere you would like to go."

"I'd like to go back to Santa Barbara please," she said, trying to keep the eagerness out of her voice.

"I'd assumed that was where you'd want to go," he said, and she could see his eyes twinkling. It was still strange to her that someone who could approve hundreds of children to be experimented on could be so kind.

She had been told that the focus of this particular lab had changed nearly ten years ago, though she wasn't permitted to know exactly what they did now.

"I'd like to go now, if you don't mind," she said. She didn't want to appear rude to this man, not after he was giving her a chance at a real life, but she was sick of the hospital, and she couldn't help but feel nervous every time she closed her eyes. What if they changed their minds and did something else to her while she was here?

"Of course," he said, smiling as he got to his feet. "Come with me."

She hadn't been allowed near a computer or cell phone since her surgery, and the empty feeling of her head made her uncomfortable. She could no longer sense all the technology surrounding them, though she walked past multiple rooms, all of which held heart monitors and other machines. Her fingers itched to see if she could still use a computer as easily as she had before.

To her surprise, Richard climbed into the car with her as they headed to the airport.

"I hope you don't mind," he began after nearly half an hour of silent driving. "But I pulled a few strings and got you a job in Santa Barbara. It's the least I could do after people I'd hired to protect you turned on you instead."

"I don't need any charity," she said, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

"I know," he said. "But I was hoping that this job would keep you out of trouble, if you accept it."

"What is it?" She asked, running a hand unconsciously over her newly short hair.

They'd had to shave part of her head to do the operation, and when she had woken, she had asked a nurse to cut the rest of it off too. She didn't want only half her head to be shaved. In the last month, it had grown out about an inch.

"The technology department at Santa Barbara Police Station had been severely lacking for the last decade or so," came his response. She looked at him for a moment, then out the window without comment.

"And if I decide not to take the job?" She asked tentatively.

"Then someone else can whip them into shape," he said, chuckling. She let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm not sure I'll be staying in Santa Barbara," she said, her voice steady. She wasn't sure if Shawn wanted her around. Sure, it had seemed like he had forgiven her all those months ago, but they had been in a stressful situation that was likely to lead to her death.

"Well, if you decide you want the job, go in and speak to the chief there," Richard said as the car pulled to a stop outside the private airport inside of Area 51.

"Thank you," she said as they climbed out of the car.

Within another half hour, she was in the air in a tiny, private plane. There was no one else there besides the two pilots, and she spent the time looking out the window. She still had trouble believing that she was free, really free.

At the airport, one of the pilots handed her a small backpack, similar to her old one, though much smaller and lighter.

"The director said to give you this," the woman said. She had a heavy southern accent, and her blonde hair and gentile smile made Evelyn feel as though she were talking to a mother. "It's got a bit of cash, a change of clothes for you, and some road rations, in case you don't stay here."

"Thank you," she said, accepting the pack. She didn't know what else to say, so she swung it over her shoulders and jumped out of the plane onto the asphalt.

She took off, giving the two pilots a wave, then made her way through the airport, stopping off in a bathroom to look through the bag. A bit of cash turned out to be close to a thousand dollars. She used some of that to buy a cab to the Psych office. She wasn't sure if Shawn would be there, but she was too nervous to go to the station or his apartment.

After a twenty minute drive, she payed the taxi driver and made her way down the boardwalk to the Psych office. She knocked lightly on the door, then turned the knob. It was locked, and she frowned, not sure what to do next, but she didn't have long to think.

"Hello," she turned at the voice, spotting Gus, and Shawn behind him. Shawn had been talking to Gus, but he fell silent when he spotted her. His eyes swept over her face, as though not believing what he saw was real.

"Evelyn?" He asked after a moment of silence. She smiled at him, then was nearly knocked off her feet as he hugged her. "I thought I'd never see you again." His voice was a whisper in her ear, not meant for his friend to hear. She patted his back, fighting against the happy tears that threatened to fall.

"Let's go inside, you're causing a scene," Gus said, unlocking the door. The three of them went into the Psych office, closing the door behind them.

"How are you here?" Shawn asked, his voice happy. It was a far cry from the last time she had unexpectedly shown up.

"I'm free," she said, grinning. "They took the chip out of my head and let me go."

"Really?" He asked, his face alight.

"Yep," she said, dragging the word out to make the 'p' pop. "I'm completely normal now," she added.

"I doubt that," Shawn said, but he was grinning. "So you're staying right?"

"If you… don't mind," she said. "It would be cool to actually live somewhere for more than six months. If you don't want me nearby I can go somewhere else."

"Oh god please don't," Gus said, reminding them he was still in the room. "All he's done since you disappeared is whine about you and make idiotic plans to break into Area 51."

"Really?" Evelyn asked, raising a brow. She was amused to see that Shawn's face was turning a little red.

"Evelyn, want to go on a walk down the pier?" Shawn asked, glaring at Gus over her head. "It's a bit loud in here.

She laughed at that, and followed him out the door.

"I think it would be great if you stayed in the city," he said after a moment of silence.

"I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything," she said.

"Evie," he said, and her heard skipped a beat at the nickname. "I don't want you to leave. I… I want things to be how they used to be." His voice was so serious that she stopped walking to look at him.

"How they were when?" She asked to clarify.

"You know, before," he said. She had never seen him at a loss for words before. It would have been amusing if her heart wasn't racing a mile a minute, pounding against her chest as she thought about what he was saying. "Before I left. Before I came back here."

She didn't let him elaborate, instead she threw her arms around his neck, kissing him to shut him up. His hands fell to her waist, wrapping around her to pull her closer as he kissed her back. People around them began to whistle or mumble at them, and they pulled apart.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the beach, grinning. She laughed and followed after him.

"You're hair is so short," he commented running a hand over the short locks.

"You liked my hair last time it was short," she commented, smiling up at him.

"You might have to remind me why," he said, wriggling his eyebrows at her. She laughed again, hitting his arm. She felt like her heart was going to explode with happiness.

"I love you too, by the way," he said, smiling over at her.

"I didn't say anything," she said, shaking her head.

"It's the last thing you said to me before I left," he said. "I should have said that I love you too."

"You should have," she agreed, nodding.

"Well I'm saying it now," he said.

"Good enough," she said, grinning.

They walked down the beach in the sunlight, the waves soaking their shoes, though neither of them cared much at the moment.

"Do you know what happened to my backpack?" She asked after a while of silence. "I left it in the back of your tall detective's car."

"Lassie searched through it, sent everything through the lab, then gave it to me. I have it at my place," he said. "We can get it later if you want."

"Are you trying to lure me back to your apartment?" She asked, her voice joking.

"Maybe," he said, laughing. "Is it working?"

"Probably," she replied, chuckling.

"We could go get it now," he said, wriggling his eyebrows.

"I'm down," she said, smiling. "You still have your bike?"

"Of course," he said, leading her back up to the boardwalk. I even have a spare helmet in the office you can use."

"Sounds safe," she said, tightening her grip on his hand.

"Well now that I know you aren't going to disappear, I want to keep you around," he said. She smiled at him and he pulled her to a stop to kiss her again.

The next morning she went to the station to accept her new job. She didn't bother looking for her own apartment, Shawn had insisted she stay at his place. She hadn't argued much. She was too happy with her life to fight against it.


End file.
